A 17-year-old has appeared before a Crown Court judge for the first time, charged with allegedly throwing a six-year-old boy from a viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery.
Psychiatric reports have been ordered for the unnamed teenager, who appeared briefly in the dock at the Old Bailey on Thursday. Flanked by two security guards, he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and British nationality during the short hearing.
The court heard that any trial would be listed to last two weeks and would be held in the new year.
The child, who is in a stable but critical condition, had plummeted five storeys after allegedly being thrown from the 10th floor viewing platform.
The unnamed boy, who is believed to be French and was holidaying with his family when he was attacked on Sunday, suffered a bleed on the brain and fractures to his spine, legs and arms.
A reporting restriction prevents the identity of both the victim and the defendant from being made public. Scotland Yard has said there is no link between the suspect and the victim.
At an earlier appearance at Bromley Youth Court on Tuesday, the hearing was told the victim was at the gallery with his parents and they were on the viewing platform “looking over the side and enjoying the view” when he was allegedly picked up and thrown over the edge in an action that was “carried out extremely swiftly and in one movement”.
Officers were called to the gallery at around 2.40pm and the child was treated at the scene before being flown to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance.
The Tate Modern was the UK’s most popular tourist attraction in 2018 after being visited 5.9 million times, according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.