‘Selfish coward’ Shepherd jailed as victim’s family tell of their pain
Charlotte Brown’s sister breaks down as speedboat killer given extra six months for absconding
THEY had been forced to wait several agonising and unimaginable months for this moment.
When it came, Charlotte Brown’s family endured it with dignity, calmly gazing at the man held responsible for the death of their daughter and sister as he finally stood behind the glass of the Old Bailey dock.
Unlike Jack Shepherd, Miss Brown’s parents and her two sisters had attended every single day of his trial for manslaughter by gross negligence last July.
Then the dock was empty, as Shepherd enjoyed his freedom in Georgia from where he instructed his legal team and received daily transcripts from the court, including the news of his conviction and six-year sentence.
Yesterday it was a different story. Finally brought to justice, Shepherd, dressed in a dark jacket and white shirt, looked tired and pale as Judge Richard Marks sentenced him to a further six months in jail, declaring that his decision to evade justice was “as cowardly as it was selfish”.
“You were in effect having your cake and eating it,” he said. “This is not how our system of justice is intended to operate.” Shepherd, 31, stared straight ahead, unable to bring himself to so much as glance to his right, where Miss Brown’s family sat together.
Andrew Mcgee, defending, insisted Shepherd’s decision to abscond was born solely from fear and said he “remains terrified” of the prospect of jail.
“He now recognises that what he did was cowardly but it was not deliberately callous or cavalier and it was not in any sense cynical or calculated,” he said.
Mr Mcgee sought to gain some credit for Shepherd’s decision to surrender to the Georgian authorities amid a blaze of publicity in January, stating that he had “ultimately chosen to acquiesce to extradition” against the advice of his Georgian legal team.
But Judge Marks, who had presided over Shepherd’s trial, did not mince his words. “This is not the case of somebody who entirely off his own bat has thought better of the situation and decided to surrender,” he said. “Rather, this was somebody who realised the net was closing in.” The judge said it was “made very clear” that the web designer, from Devon, had originally intended to fight extradition and only belatedly changed his mind, aware that it meant protracted time in Georgian custody. He told Shepherd that his time on the run had “hugely added” to the distress of Miss Brown’s family “who could not have known when, if at all” he would be apprehended.
Outside court, Miss Brown’s sister Katie broke down as she attempted to read a family statement. Her father, Graham Brown, threw his arm around her as she struggled on through her tears.
It was clear that the family’s pain continued, exacerbated by Shepherd’s lack of remorse, his continued insistence that Miss Brown was responsible for her own death and the strongly refuted claim that Mr Brown had once threatened him on the phone.
Shepherd, who got married two months after Miss Brown’s death, has maintained that she was piloting the
‘He has not shown any real remorse. His lack of respect and decency continues to astound us’
boat when it crashed and should therefore shoulder part of the blame.
He has also expressed confidence that a pending appeal against his conviction, based on perceived legal errors made by the judge in relation to his police interview, will be successful.
Miss Brown said: “Shepherd has continued to prolong our agony, making wild accusations against our family and of the events of the fateful night in December 2015, which are inconsistent to Shepherd’s own police interview and testimonies given during the manslaughter trial.”
She added: “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. His lack of respect and decency continues to astound us.”