Making a mockery of British justice

FOR 70 years, the legal aid system has ensured that access to British justice is not the exclusive preserve of those who can afford to pay.

It guarantees every citizen the right to legal representation, equality before the law and the right to a fair trial. And, of course, it’s funded by the public.

So when that cherished system is cynically exploited by a convicted killer on the run, the public has every right to be outraged – and to demand an explanation.

By any decent standards, Jack Shepherd is a cheating, womanising scoundrel.

He bought a speedboat with the express purpose of ‘pulling women’, despite having a long-term partner and child. And his drunken recklessness caused a hideous accident on the Thames, which cost the life of his ‘date’, 24-year-old Charlotte Brown.

Shepherd was rescued but failed to mention that Charlotte had also been in the upturned boat. He left her to die, abandoned and alone, in the icy water.

Having fled justice, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to six years. He hasn’t served a single day, yet is now mounting a legal aid-funded appeal against conviction. So we have these questions. How does a man with a good job, who can afford a speedboat, a family home and a London houseboat qualify for legal aid in the first place?

And why is the taxpayer continuing to fund his lawyers when he’s still a fugitive? He shouldn’t receive a penny more from the public purse unless he turns himself in.

The Mail has offered a £25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, and we sincerely hope someone will give him up.

By making such a mockery of legal aid, Shepherd is corroding trust in British justice. More importantly, he is insulting Charlotte’s memory and cruelly taunting her grieving family.