Tate Modern: Psychiatric reports ordered after six-year-old boy ‘thrown from roof’

Seventeen-year-old yet to enter plea

A teenager accused of throwing a six-year-old French boy from a viewing platform at the Tate Modern in London will undergo psychiatric assessment before he stands trial next year.

The 17-year-old confirmed his name, date of birth, address and British nationality during a 22-minute administrative hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday.

He has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyers have ordered psychiatric reports before he does so.

The court was told any trial would be listed to last two weeks and would be held next year.

During his first appearance at Bromley Youth Court on Tuesday, the hearing was told the victim had suffered a bleed on the brain as well as fractures to his spine, arms and legs after falling 100ft (30m) onto a fifth-floor roof on Sunday.

The youth court heard the boy was at the art gallery with his parents looking over the side and "enjoying the view” when he was allegedly picked up and thrown over the edge - an action described as being “carried out extremely swiftly and in one movement”.

His mother was heard by witnesses screaming: “My son, oh my son.”

He was taken by air ambulance to hospital and is now in a critical but stable condition.

A reporting restriction bans the identities of both the victim and defendant from being made public.

The court appearance came as a crowdfunding appeal for the victim raised more than £15,000 within 24 hours of being set up.

London nurse Vicky Diplacto, whose brother was paralysed in a similar incident overseas, said she set up the GoFundMe appeal “in order that he [the six-year-old boy] may receive gold-standard care and support, alongside supporting his family to receive the ongoing care and support that they may need”.

Additional reporting by Press Association