Sunday Mirror

SPEEDBOAT KILLER PLOTS TO WED FROM JAIL

Thames tragedy fugitive plans to marry Georgian lover... after he gets divorced

- BY PATRICK HILL

SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd is planning his wedding from jail – despite still being married.

He was locked up over Charlotte Brown’s death. Georgian lover Maiko Tchanturid­ze says: “I’ll wait for him.”

tion between strangers. He seemed interestin­g, educated and a nice guy to talk with. He wasn’t great at running – I think he was just working out there because of me. We’d see each other quite often. We liked each other.”

Maiko says Shepherd, who was using the false name Jack Grant, told her he had lived in the US, Spain and Italy. She adds: “He said he knew about Georgia from friends and was curious to see what it was like.

“I knew he had a wife, but they were going to divorce, and it’s been maybe two years they are not together. And I knew, of course, he had a child and many things about his job – and almost everything about his life. We had an emotional connection.

“It quickly became a romantic relationsh­ip and we moved in together in September 2018.

“I was translatin­g books and he was helping. We’d go out with our friends, walk in parks and that was all really.” Unbeknown to Maiko, the net was closing in on Shepherd. She says he became increasing­ly depressed before finally telling her the truth in a video call just two days before he surrendere­d to Tbilisi police in January 2019.

Maiko recalls: “It was emotional. We both cried and he apologised for not telling me sooner and for bringing me trouble. I was shocked and very angry. It was the biggest trauma in my life.

“But after he explained everything and after I read about the court case and everything written about him, I honestly believe it was a tragic accident. Of course it is terrible that Charlotte died, but it was an accident.”

Maiko, who works in customer service for a German company when not doing TV work, is desperate to visit Shepherd in jail.

Her first visa applicatio­n was rejected and she is about to reapply.

She says: “Hopefully I will see Jack. He is not feeling great. I am worried about him. Prison is not where he wants to spend his life, but he is not complainin­g. We both are suffering.”

News that speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is planning to marry a woman he met while on the run will come as a sickening blow to his victim’s family.

As he plans his “happy ever after” with glamorous TV producer Maiko Tchanturid­ze, Charlotte Brown’s family face a lifetime without their daughter.

Shepherd displayed extreme arrogance when he fled to Georgia while facing trial for killing Charlotte, 24, during an internet date.

During his 10 months on the run, the swaggering web developer showed little remorse for her death, instead courting Maiko, who seems bizarrely smitten by him.

Then there’s the matter of his first wife. Shepherd is already married and has a child.

But, once again, he won’t let the past stand in his way.

Maiko describes how she was wooed by Shepherd during romantic walks in the park and is convinced of her lover’s complete innocence.

She whines of “suffering” over being apart from Shepherd and complains that he is “not feeling great”.

There will be few who have any sympathy. And no one will welcome a happy ending for a man who left Britain to evade justice, courted a new woman while on the run and showed total disregard for the law.

Even after offering an “unreserved” apology to Charlotte’s family, he sickeningl­y continued to rub salt in the wounds by claiming it was HER decision to accelerate the boat.

There is no end to the man’s cavalier attitude. Maiko would be wise to consider all this before she walks down the aisle with him.

She claims to have been “shocked” by his past. Not as shocked as everyone else will be if she goes ahead with the wedding.

They say love comes from the most unexpected places.

And that’s certainly true in the case of Sue Gardner, her ex-husband John Feathersto­ne and her new love Kevin McPhail.

Far from being at loggerhead­s, Sue and John remained friends after their split and now she is nursing him through terminal cancer.

And what’s even more incredible is that the man she left John for is helping too.

In an age where divorces are mostly acrimoniou­s and played out in public on social media, it’s nice to see someone standing firm in their vow to care “in sickness and in health”.

A staggering 20,000 DIY enthusiast­s ended up in A&E this year after accidents.

They included plunging off ladders, falling off furniture and hurting themselves with power tools. Maybe it should be more a case of Don’t Involve Yourself !

 ??  ?? Shepherd with Maiko. Inset: Charlotte
Shepherd with Maiko. Inset: Charlotte
 ??  ?? THE FUGITIVE Shepherd kisses Maiko in Georgia
THE FUGITIVE Shepherd kisses Maiko in Georgia

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