SPEEDBOAT KILLER FLIES HOME TO JAIL
»»Shepherd extradited »»And guess what... he after a year on the run STILL won’t stop whining
SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd finally faced justice last night as he took his first steps on British soil in 10 months. The convict, 31, boarded Georgian Airways flight A90751 accompanied by two British officials for the fiveand-a-half hour flight to the UK. He left Tbilisi in handcuffs after nearly a year on the run and is expected to be put in a UK jail to serve a six-year jail term over the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown, 24. Georgian prison service images showed him striding from maximum security No8 jail with two guards. Wearing a blue cardigan, blue jeans and light blue shirt, he was ushered into a waiting van. Once on the plane, he said: “When I fled I was acting on pure emotion, out of fear. I now realise I must take some responsibility in part.”
But added: “In prison I received death threats, my family have received threats, my lawyer’s home and office are still under protection. [Because] of some of the media’s misreporting of things I think there is an animosity towards me that is misplaced. There really has been a lot of untruths and lies.”
The married dad, 31, from Exeter, Devon, was whisked directly to the Boeing 737, which landed at Gatwick at 9.21pm. He was driven away in a waiting police car and will appear at the Old Bailey this morning, where a judge is expected to jail him. Business consultant Charlotte, from Clacton, Essex, died on her first date with Shepherd in 2015. He had taken her for a drunken ride in his defective speedboat, which flipped. The website designer fled ahead of his trial last July, and was convicted in his absence. He caused fury by launching an appeal, funded by nearly €100,000 in legal aid so far. Within weeks of his arrival in the former Soviet republic, he is said to have sparked up a romance with his Georgian TV journalist girlfriend Maiko Tchanturidze, 24. He handed himself in to police on January 23 but told her Charlotte’s death was not his fault.
He is expected to continue his appeal after today’s court appearance, and his Georgian lawyer Mariam Kublashvili has vowed to help.