Womaniser heaped pain on victim’s family

WOMANISING Jack Shepherd became known as the runaway killer after he fled Britain while awaiting trial for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown.

Business consultant Charlotte had gone for a ride in Shepherd’s ageing speedboat in December 2015 after meeting him on dating site OkCupid.

They had a boozy £150 meal at a posh restaurant in London’s tallest building The Shard before taking to the water. Tragedy struck when the boat hit branches in the river near Wandsworth Bridge – hurling them into the water.

Shepherd was found clinging to the hull and Charlotte, from Clacton, Essex, was pulled from the water unconscious.

Before he skipped court in 2018, Shepherd had married, had a child and split up with his wife. She discovered he dated up to 10 women while they were together. When jailed in his absence, he was living in Tbilisi – while claiming £100,000 legal aid for an appeal. In a TV interview he claimed Charlotte was at the wheel when the boat crashed.

Shepherd angered Charlotte’s family with more controversial statements.

He claimed he wanted to meet Charlotte’s mum Roz Wickens to convince her he was not at fault. And he criticised a key witness who claims she saw him acting suspiciously the night Charlotte died. At his extradition case, Shepherd demanded a private cell in the UK, 24-hour CCTV, guards and “access to the media”.

A judge dismissed the pleas. In the UK, he was formally given the six year manslaughter jail term, plus six months for absconding and four years for glassing a barman in a separate case.

An appeal against his manslaughter sentence was later dismissed.