‘Speedboat killer’ says sorry to family

JACK SHEPHERD, the so-called speedboat killer, has finally apologised to the family of Charlotte Brown who died after his defected boat crashed while on the Thames.

Shepherd, who has so far refused to take responsibility for the 24-year-old’s death, has now said he is remorseful for the undeniable part that he played.

Asked if he would now apologise to Charlotte’s parents Graham Brown and Roz Wickens he told The Sun: “Absolutely, unreservedly, I apologise for the role I played, and undeniably I did play a part. They have my sincere sympathies and condolences and I understand why they apportion the blame as they do.

“If I was in the same situation I would probably feel the same way. I am very sorry for what happened. It was a tragedy and if I could do anything to change what happened, I really would.”

Miss Brown, from Welling in Bexley, south London, died when she was flung from his vessel in December 2015. The pair had met online and were on their first date. They had eaten at The Shard before taking to Shepherd’s boat late at night. Shepherd, 31, a web designer, married a childhood friend two months after the tragedy and had a son later that year.

Despite apologising, he added that he did not hold sole responsibility. “There were a number of factors that led to the accident – some were my decisions, some were Charlotte’s,” he said.

“It was a joint decision to go out on the boat that night, her desire to drive the boat, but it was my decision to permit her to drive. Perhaps I ought to have instructed her further – more so than I did.

“But it was ultimately Charlotte’s action to accelerate in the manner that she did, even though I failed to prevent her. You see, it’s shared [responsibility]. And there are matters of luck or fate – an unseen log in the path of the boat. In the end I survived while Charlotte lost her life. These things could have been very different.”

On the night Miss Brown died, Shepherd was pulled from the Thames by emergency services. Police officers said he stank of alcohol, was slurring and unsteady on his feet.

He was interviewed as a witness the following day, when he revealed he had purchased the speedboat to “pull women”. He said his memory of the incident was “quite hazy” because they had been drinking “heavily”. But he claimed she was at the wheel at the time of the crash.

“Neither of us were wearing life jackets... I didn’t even ask if she could swim or anything,” he added.

He was charged in September 2017 but absconded the following March, just a day after allegedly knocking a barman unconscious with a vodka bottle in a Devon pub.

Before handing himself into police in Tbilisi, Georgia, in January, he told a local TV station: “It was unwise to go out on the water, but not mad.”