The family of a six-year-old French boy who fell five storeys from the Tate Modern said he has made “amazing progress” as they thanked well-wishers who have donated more than £54,000 (60,000 euro) to help him.
In a message shared on the GoFundMe page, the family said: “Hello everybody. Just a little message to tell you about our son’s amazing progress. He is an incredible fighter.
“Even if he can’t speak or move his body for the moment, we now know for sure that he understands us: he smiles and we saw him laughing several times since a couple of days when we were telling him some funny things or when we were reading to him some stories.
“It gives us lots of strength and hope, as much as the strength you, all of you, give us since the beginning with your kind messages. Thank you so much for what you do for our little boy and for us.”
On 4 August, police officers were called at around 2.40pm to the Tate Modern art gallery where they found the child injured on a 5th floor roof.
The boy, who was visiting the UK from France, had plummeted five storeys after allegedly being thrown from the 10th floor viewing platform.
He was taken to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance where he was found to have suffered a bleed on the brain and fractures to his spine, legs and arms. On 19 August, the victim’s family said his condition was stabilised after “two long and difficult operations”.
A 17-year-old, charged with allegedly throwing the boy off the platform, appeared before a Crown Court judge on 8 August for an administrative hearing.
Psychiatric reports were 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.
A reporting restriction bans the identities of both the victim and the defendant being made public.
At an earlier appearance, the court heard that the six-year-old was at the gallery with his parents and they were on the viewing platform “looking over the side and enjoying the view”
The child is said to have walked a short distance from his parents and was allegedly picked up and thrown over the edge in an action that was “carried out extremely swiftly and in one movement”, the court heard.
The suspect was apprehended by members of the public after the incident.