FAMILY’S AGONY AS SPEEDBOAT KILLER IS FREE FROM JAIL
Just half of crash death term served
SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd has been freed from jail after serving just half of a six-year sentence over the death of his Tinder date.
The 36-year-old, who spent 10 months as a fugitive after fleeing to Georgia ahead of his trial, was let out despite pleas from victim Charlotte Brown’s father for his release to be blocked.
Shepherd was finally jailed in April 2019 and has served half of his six-year term for manslaughter over Charlotte’s death in a 2015 crash, plus time for an attack on a barman in 2018.
Sources claim he left HMP Dovegate, near Uttoxeter, East Staffs, on Tuesday in the back of a silver estate just after 5pm.
It is unclear where Shepherd went but his release will mean more heartache for Charlotte’s devastated family.
A source said: “Charlotte’s family are devastated. They believe he should have been convicted of murder.”
The killer claimed tragic Charlotte, a 24-year-old business consultant, was partly to blame for her death in a crash on the River Thames in December 2015.
He took her on a champagne-fuelled trip after their first date, using a defective speedboat he had bought on Gumtree.
The 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte GTO hit a log and capsized, throwing them into the river near Wandsworth Bridge in West London. Shepherd claimed Charlotte – who a postmortem found died from cold water immersion – was at the wheel at the time of the crash.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror last month, Charlotte’s father Graham, who works for the prison service, said: “Jack Shepherd should not be released until he tells us the truth.
“The only one who knows what really happened is Shepherd. We want to know. But evil men like this who do these sorts of things never admit or tell anyone how it happened.”
Shepherd, a web designer from Exeter, Devon, skipped bail and ran off to Eastern Europe, living in Georgian capital Tbilisi.
He was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence in his absence and given a six-year determinate sentence. During his 10 months as a fugitive, Shepherd enjoyed skiing trips and struck up a romance with a TV broadcaster. After an international manhunt, he surrendered in January 2019 and was deported.
In addition to his six-year term, Shepherd was handed a consecutive four years after he admitted hitting a barman over the head with a vodka bottle in a Devon hotel in 2018. His fixed term meant he was allowed to walk free this week.
Graham says it is a bitter blow and called Shepherd a “misogynist” who still poses a danger to women.
The Ministry of Justice said: “Offenders released on licence are kept under close supervision and subject to strict conditions for the remainder of their sentence. They face recall if they breach them.
“We’ve also changed the law for serious offences so those receiving standard determinate sentences of four years or more must now serve two-thirds of their time behind bars.”
[The family] believe he should have been convicted of murder MIRROR SOURCE ON THE BROWN FAMILY’S REACTION