The killer smiling all the way back to a British jail
The Mail flushed him out of his East European bolthole. But even as Jack Shepherd is finally flown to UK, he can’t hide his sneering defiance
FOR months Jack Shepherd cowered from justice while taunting his victim’s family.
He launched an appeal against his manslaughter conviction despite being on the run – and shamelessly used public cash to pay for it. Even after being flushed from his bolthole by the Daily Mail, the speedboat killer brazenly fought against extradition. And last night – as he was finally flown back from Georgia to face justice – the 31-year-old was still protesting his innocence. He will appear at the Old Bailey today to be sent to jail to start his six-year term for killing Charlotte Brown, 24. Speaking on the plane before take-off, he insisted he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. And he said he hoped to overturn his conviction for the death of Miss Brown, who
drowned when his faulty boat flipped over on their first date. His court appearance gives her family their first chance to look him in the eye since he went on the run.
A judge is expected to send him straight to Wandsworth Prison in south London to belatedly begin his sentence.
He could also face extra jail time for his decision to abscond. He skipped bail ahead of his trial last year and fled to Georgia to begin a new life in the former Soviet republic. Shepherd was returned to Britain on a Georgian Airways flight paid for by the UK taxpayer.
Wearing an open-neck white shirt, navy cardigan and blue jeans, he was taken by prison van from his jail in the capital Tbilisi to the airport.
He was placed in economy class at the back of the plane. Two policemen and one policewoman from the Met took it in turns to sit next to him.
He spent the five-hour flight wearing handcuffs. He stared out of his window at the Georgian sunset until darkness fell, and was then offered a roasted vegetable casserole, salad and bread rolls.
Explaining to reporters on board the flight to Gatwick why he fled justice, Shepherd said: ‘I wasn’t thinking, there was a lot of emotion and fear.’ Asked why he was pursuing his appeal against the wishes of Miss Brown’s family, he added: ‘I understand why they say that, but there has been a miscarriage of justice, it’s a matter of law.’
He admitted he felt in part responsible for what happened to his date, but added: ‘ Not to the degree of manslaughter’. He also denied that he ‘let her drown’.
When asked what will go through his mind when he sees Miss Brown’s family in court today, Shepherd replied: ‘ Regret that I did not speak to them sooner. I think that, aside from taking the boat out that night, that is my second biggest mistake.
‘I was following legal advice but I wish I had followed my heart and spoken to them.’
He said he felt relieved to be going back to Britain, adding: ‘I have to face the situation. I feel less fear now than I did and I feel ready to face it now.’ As he left the maximum security Gldani No 8 prison in Tbilisi, Shepherd stopped to thank the people of Georgia.
Speaking in Georgian, which he has been learning in jail in the hope of becoming a citizen, he said: ‘Thank you Georgia. I love you Georgia and I will see you later.’
Shepherd was on the run for ten months until a Daily Mail investigation led to him being tracked down. He handed himself in to police on January 23, but spent two months fighting extradition, saying he wanted to stay in Georgia. He has been dating would-be model Maiko Tchanturidze, 24. She wept when she said goodbye in his prison earlier this week and vowed to stay true to him, saying: ‘I will come to England to visit him in prison, if I can get a visa.’
Miss Brown’s family – her father Graham, mother Roz Wickens and sisters Katie and Vicky – have maintained a dignified silence this week but are expected to make a statement after the Old Bailey hearing today. Miss Brown died in
December 2015 when drunken Shepherd took her for a spin in his boat on a champagne-fuelled date in London.
Trying to impress her, he tore up the Thames in the dark and when the boat flipped, rescuers heard him cry ‘help me’, rather than ‘help us’. Miss Brown, a business consultant from Clacton in Essex, was pulled from the water unconscious and later declared dead in hospital.
Before his trial last year, Shepherd abandoned his wife and baby son to flee to Georgia.
The case went ahead without him and in July a jury found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence because his boat was defective and he was drunk when it capsized. He sparked public outrage by appealing against his conviction from his hideaway, via his London lawyers. In a further injustice he won legal aid to fund the action.
In January, the Mail offered a £25,000 reward and launched an international search to find him. Theresa May and Home Secretary Sajid Javid led calls for Shepherd to give himself up.
While on the run, he worked as a web designer in Tbilisi and learnt to ski. Nino Vardzelashvili, a journalist with Georgia’s main Rustavi 2 channel, said: ‘He had a great time in Georgia during these ten months.’
After turning himself in to police, Shepherd complained that the Mail’s coverage had been ‘very hurtdropped ful’. He said he wanted to set the record straight, even heartlessly suggesting Miss Brown’s death was her own fault.
He has issued a reluctant apology to Miss Brown’s parents but claims their daughter was driving the boat, adding: ‘ Her actions led to the fatal accident.’
He hired a team of high-powered lawyers including former swimwear model Mariam Kublashvili who tried to string out the extradition case.
She argued that ‘ emotional’ jurors at the Old Bailey trial had wrongly convicted Shepherd because they had not had a chance to hear his testimony – glossing over the fact that this was because he had fled.
His lawyers also claimed his life would be in danger if he served his six-year sentence in a British jail, because Miss Brown’s father works in the prison service.
Shepherd reeled off an absurd list of demands, including having his own cell in Britain covered by 24hour CCTV and staffed by personal guards. But the Georgian judge dismissed the requests at the extradition hearing.
Shepherd, who comes from Exeter, gave a self-serving speech from the dock saying he was full of regrets, adding: ‘Not a single day passes when I do not think about the loss of Charlotte Brown, and the effect that this has had on her family.’ Two weeks ago, he finally his fight against extradition. He might now ask for his two months in a Georgian jail to count towards his sentence.
No date has been set for Shepherd’s appeal, which is expected to centre on perceived legal errors made by the trial judge in relation to his police interview.
Miss Kublashvili, who starred on Georgia’s version of Strictly Come Dancing, said: ‘He’s ready for his appeal and I am sure he will clear his name.’ After seeing Shepherd, she said: ‘I felt I was going to cry. He thanked me for my services and said he would be eternally grateful. I said I would climb nine mountains to help him, which is an old Georgian phrase. He liked that.’
The Crown Prosecution Service could also charge him with grievous bodily harm for allegedly glassing a barman in Devon days before he fled, which could result in a further jail term. On the plane last night he was asked if he would accept the result of his appeal. He said: ‘Yes. The Court of Appeal, they are the ones to decide these questions.’
Earlier, as he left for Britain, Shepherd said: ‘I am terribly sorry for my involvement in Charlotte’s death and subsequent actions which have made things worse and I’d like to make amends for that.’