'Speedboat killer' back behind bars after being released over death of woman on fatal first date
Jack Shepherd has been thrown back in jail just 18 months after being released after breaching license conditions
A man dubbed the "speedboat killer" has been sent back to prison just a year after he was released over the death of a woman on their first date.
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Web designer Jack Shepherd was freed after service half of his six-year prison sentence in January last year, but is now back behind bars for breaching his licence conditions.
Charlotte Brown, 24, died in December 2015 after she was thrown from the defective speedboat when it capsized on the River Thames. It appears the boat hit a submerged tree trunk.
In mobile phone footage of the incident, Ms Brown could be heard shouting that they were going "so fast" as Shepherd drove at more than double the 12-knot speed limit.
She and Shepherd had been drinking champagne before he took her on the ill-fated trip past the Palace of Westminster.
Shpeherd was pulled alive from the Thames, but Ms Brown was sadly found unconscious and unresponsive. She later died in hospital.
The prison service does not comment on details of licence conditions breaches, but a spokesman said: “As this case shows, we do not hesitate to send offenders back to prison if they break the rules.”
It is not clear exactly what conditions of his license nor the nature of the breach.
Shepherd, originally from Exeter, then went on the run, and was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence in his absence after an Old Bailey trial in 2018.
Reacting to his recall, Ms Brown’s dad, Graham Brown told The Sun: “He’s back where he belongs.
“He’s never shown remorse for his part in the death of my daughter.
“I think about her every day. The pain is never far away.
“I’ll never forgive him and still believe he poses a risk to females.”
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Shepherd eventually handed himself in to police in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2019, and was brought back to the UK, where he was also handed a four-year-jail term for attacking a barman, to run at the same time as his six-year sentence.
He was convicted of wounding with intent for hitting former soldier David Beech with a vodka bottle after being asked to leave The White Hart Hotel in Newton Abbot, Devon, in March 2018.