Midlife women frozen out of motherhood
SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd has dropped plans to fight his extradition from Georgia – and could be flown to the UK later this week. Shepherd, who abandoned his wife and child to go on the run, is expected to agree to be deported at an imminent court hearing in Tbilisi.
He fled to Georgia before his trial for the manslaughter of his Tinder date Charlotte Brown, 24, who died when his speedboat flipped and crashed on the Thames.
Shepherd, 31, was sentenced to six years in prison in his absence.
Authorities in the former Soviet state will have two weeks to hand him over so he can finally face justice for Miss Brown’s death in 2015.
The web designer, who had been living with his Georgian girlfriend, has tried to dodge extradition – claiming he feared for his safety here.
His lawyer Mariam Kublashvili said: ‘Jack could have frustrated this process with various procedures like requesting asylum. He could also have chosen to remain on the run but he is above that.’
Following a Daily Mail campaign, Shepherd finally came out of hiding in January – giving a TV interview protesting his innocence as he surrendered to Georgian police.
He had been determined to stay in the maximum security Gldani No.8 prison where he has spent the past two months. But he now appears to have changed his mind after learning time served in jail there will not count towards his sentence.
A source said: ‘ He knows at the moment he’s just delaying the inevitable – and lengthening his sentence by staying.’
The father of one enjoyed a quiet life in Georgia where he used the name Jack Grant and moved in with a 24-year-old TV journalist.
British prosecutors lodged a formal request to have him returned and he is expected to appear before a Georgian judge this week.
Shepherd has continued to blame Miss Brown for the tragedy, which took place in December 2015 after a champagne-fuelled date.
The Georgian prosecutor’s office said: ‘If the lawyers and the judge all agree… then all that is needed is the signature of the justice minister to send him to the UK.’
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service may also charge him with absconding and for glassing a barman days before he fled.