BEHIND UK BARS AT LAST
Speedboat killer gets an extra 6 months as judge praises Mail
SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd was given an extra six months in jail yesterday after shamelessly trying to claim credit for handing himself in.
An incredulous judge told the fugitive he had surrendered only because the Daily Mail had flushed him out of his hideaway in Georgia.
The 31-year-old looked stunned as Judge Richard Marks, QC, called him ‘cowardly and selfish’ for going on the run and causing huge distress to the family of his victim Charlotte Brown, 24. She drowned when the drunken Shepherd’s faulty speedboat flipped on the Thames.
Her mother Roz Wickens, father Graham Brown and sisters Katie and Vicky all glared at Shepherd as he shuffled into the Old Bailey courtroom flanked by two guards. He did not meet their gaze during the hour-long hearing.
Asked by a court clerk to admit he had skipped bail, the web designer replied: ‘Er, yes.’ He then launched into an outlandish attempt to limit his punishment by suggesting he had voluntarily given himself up to police in the former Soviet republic.
But the judge scoffed at his claims and said: ‘A considerable media campaign began, principally taken up by the Daily Mail, and the fact you had fled to Georgia soon became known publicly.
‘The reason you decided to surrender was because you knew well enough that it was known where you were – and it was only a matter of time before the net closed in on you.’
He sentenced Shepherd, originally of Exeter, to six months for absconding, on top of his six-year sentence for manslaughter by gross negligence.
When the judge ordered ‘take him down’, Miss Brown’s father hugged her sister Katie, 29.
Last night, as Shepherd was starting his stretch at Wandsworth Prison, Mr Brown paid tribute to this newspaper: ‘As a family, we’d like to say a special thanks to the Daily Mail for their continued support and media coverage.
‘We believe this played a significant role in bringing Shepherd to justice. He deliberately ran to Georgia and he would still be in Georgia now and evading justice if it wasn’t for the fantastic job the Press has done.’
Mr Brown, of Sidcup in Kent, added: ‘He has not taken responsibility for his dreadful actions and Charlotte would still be here today if it was not for Shepherd.’
Wiping away tears outside the Old Bailey, Katie – affectionately calling her sister Charli – said: ‘Shepherd has continued to prolong our agony, making
‘He continued to prolong our agony’
wild accusations. Charli will never be returned to us, whereas Shepherd can continue his life with his family once he serves his sentence. He has not shown any real remorse or accountability for his actions, accusing Charli of being responsible for her own death as recently as this week.’
Shepherd skipped bail to make a new life in Georgia rather than attend his trial last July. Having abandoned a new wife and young child, he soon took up with an aspiring model.
Following the Mail’s campaign, he handed himself in to police on January 23, but then fought extradition for 78 days before finally being hauled back to the UK on Wednesday.
Even in shackles on the plane home, he was still whining that he was innocent, the victim of a miscarriage of justice. He blames Miss Brown for capsizing the boat on their first date in December 2015.
Shepherd’s bravado evaporated in the glass-panelled dock yesterday when the judge, who also presided at his trial, gave him a dressing-down.
He told the convicted killer: ‘Charlotte’s family were distraught about the circumstances in which she died, and those feelings were greatly exacerbated by the fact you had chosen to go on the run and evade justice.’
He said Shepherd’s ‘cowardly conduct’ had ‘hugely added to the distress of Charlotte’s family who could not have known when, if at all, you would be apprehended – you, the person who had spent the last hours of her life with their beloved daughter and sister’.
He said Shepherd had made ‘a conscious, deliberate and considered decision to go on the run’.
Andrew McGee, defending, said his client had made no attempt to conceal his identity in Georgia. He added: ‘Jack Shepherd genuinely regrets and is ashamed of his decision not to attend his trial and sentencing, particularly because of the additional distress his absconding caused to the Brown family. That was never his intention and he is deeply sorry.
‘He was terrified by the prospect of a prison sentence and remains terrified. He now recognises what he did was cowardly but it was not deliberately callous or cavalier, and not cynical or calculating.
‘This defendant surrendered to Georgian authorities when there were viable alternatives available to him.’
The judge also condemned Shepherd for his outrageous abuse of the legal system.
He said the fugitive had been ‘having his cake and eating it’ by receiving daily transcripts from court while on the run in Georgia and later sending back a detailed statement protesting his innocence.
Throughout his trial at the Old Bailey, Shepherd was living the high life, learning to ski and wooing a new girlfriend. But he was keeping abreast of every twist and turn in the case via his London lawyers and the internet.
The judge said: ‘This is not how our system of justice is intended to operate. Although your lawyers were unaware of your whereabouts, you had provided them with a means of communicating with you.
‘The effect of this was, as I gleaned during the trial, that notes of the entirety of the evidence were being sent to you via the internet.’
He said he became ‘particularly aware of this’ only after the trial – during the sentencing hearing – ‘when I was presented with a detailed statement from you, written and sent from your hideaway’.
Mr McGee told the judge there was nothing improper in the communications with the defendant.
The maximum jail term for skipping bail is 12 months, but Shepherd’s guilty plea earned him an automatic one-third discount, even though the judge said he could scarcely have pleaded otherwise. He gave him a further two-month credit for the fact he eventually agreed to be extradited.
Shepherd has received £93,000 in legal aid and has been granted an appeal against his conviction, for which no date has been set.