Amanda Platell

AS OF last night, speedboat killer Jack Shepherd was still on the run. Met police have issued an international arrest warrant — a bit late after the CPS failed to seize his passport — and admitted they haven’t a clue where he is.

What we do know is Charlotte Brown’s parents Graham and Roz are in a living hell. As today’s heartwrenching interview with them in the Mail reveals, they have been there ever since Charlotte was killed in 2015, when Shepherd overturned his speedboat on the Thames while he was drunk and she a passenger.

The pain is only deepened by the knowledge that Shepherd — convicted and given a six-year jail sentence for manslaughter in his absence — has received nearly £100,000 in legal aid for an appeal. And that while on the run he has been in contact with his lawyers.

Yet most shocking of all, to my mind, is that, despite appeals from the police, not one of Shepherd’s friends or family has publicly, or, as far we know, privately, offered to help ease Graham and Roz’s agony.

Why haven’t any of them openly condemned Shepherd’s behaviour or begged him to return?

Their response seems to have been to do the opposite, to go into hiding. How utterly indefensible, if that’s true. How shameful.

Shepherd has spent not a single day in custody since disappearing four months ahead of his trial. He told his lawyers he did not have the guts to face Charlotte’s grieving family.

The same cowardice he displayed when he crashed the speeding boat and cried out to rescuers: ‘Help me!’ — rather than: ‘Help us!’ He has been clever not to use his own phone or bank accounts, making it impossible for the police to trace him, they say.

Yet he must have people helping him. As Charlotte’s dad says: ‘There’s got to be someone harbouring him, either financially or otherwise.’

For mercy’s sake, his family and friends must do the right thing and reveal all they know about this despicable man. If not, they’ll prove themselves as cruel, cynical and cowardly as he is.