A boy who survived being thrown from the tenth floor of the Tate Modern in London as a six-year-old is recovering by practising judo.
The French youngster was six when autistic teenager Jonty Bravery hurled him off 100ft from a viewing platform at the London venue in August 2019.
He suffered life-changing injuries, including a bleed on the brain and broken bones, in the attack by teenager Jonty Bravery who was convicted of attempted murder in 2020 and jailed for 15 years.
The injured boy’s parents have now revealed their son is taking part in physical activity as part of his treatment.
Posting on a GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly 400,000 euros (£354,000) for the youngster’s recovery, the family said: “Since September, we have returned to Paris several times to consult specialists because we have to monitor the development of our son’s back, shoulder and hip, given his growth.
“We will now have to do this check every six months, to make sure that he does not need a corset again. Similarly, some new operations may unfortunately become necessary.
“In prevention, specialists recommend appropriate physical activity. This is why we have registered our son for equine therapy and the swimming pool with his specialised educator.
“And the latter also accompanies him, since the end of October, to judo. She does it very gently and does not let go of an inch on the tatami, of course.
“From time to time, we also take him for adapted archery. Our son has always loved sports, he is delighted to do all this.”
Explaining that the youngster was also improving with his breathing, they wrote: “We have also found a new speech therapist, and thanks to her, our little knight has made considerable progress in swallowing and breathing.
“He’s able to blow out candles again, he hardly makes any more wrong turns when he drinks liquids, and he’s starting to keep the rhythm of the songs better.
“He is also pursuing orthoptics and his sight is improving further, as is his memory thanks to cognitive remediation sessions with his neuropsychologist.
“He remembers more and more things he did or was told during the day.”
Bravery was also given an extra 14 weeks' jail time in December for two counts of common assault following attacks at Broadmoor hospital in Berkshire, while he was on remand for the first incident.
A serious case review found that Bravery had expressed a desire to hurt people prior to the attack and it blamed an undiagnosed personality disorder for the offence and found professionals failed to distinguish "callous" traits from behaviours linked to his autism.
