Father’s agony as speedboat killer set to be released early
SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd is set to be freed after serving half of his sentence for the drunken accident that killed Charlotte Brown.
Shepherd, 34, was jailed for six years for manslaughter by gross negligence after the death of Ms Brown, 24, during the pair’s first date.
She was killed after the boat they were in crashed on the Thames in December 2015 when it hit a log and they were thrown into the icy water. Ms Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive, while Shepherd was clinging to the hull.
Her father Graham said the family was ‘devastated’ after hearing Shepherd was likely to go free in January under his determinate sentence.
He told The Sun they would ‘never get over’ what happened to Charlotte, who would have turned 31 this month. Mr Brown said: ‘Shepherd has shown no remorse. It goes to show how outrageous our criminal justice system is.’
Shepherd had fled Britain for the former Soviet state of Georgia after being charged with Ms Brown’s manslaughter and was given a six-year sentence in his absence in 2018.
He finally handed himself in to Georgian police after an international manhunt and the Daily Mail put up a £25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. He was extradited and later given six months for skipping bail on top of the sixyear sentence.
Shepherd is also serving a consecutive four-year sentence in Frankland prison, County Durham, for attacking a barman in 2018, pushing his total prison time up to ten years.
A Ministry of Justice source told The Sun Shepherd had ‘kept his head down and quietly done his time’ and knows his case will not have to go to a Parole Board because he has a determinate sentence.
‘If he behaves, there is no reason to keep him in jail beyond his halfway point,’ the source reportedly said. ‘He will be free to simply walk out the door.’