Speedboat killer jailed for attacking girlfriend and scarring her with a set of hot barbecue tongs
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has been jailed for violently assaulting his girlfriend, including scarring her with a set of barbecue tongs.
Listen to this article
Shepherd, 39, was jailed at Isleworth Crown Court for 20 months today.
Prosecutors said he started dating the woman – who is in her 50s – in August 2024, but towards the end of that year she accused him of being abusive and threatening.
He pleaded guilty in July to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property.
He has admitted pinning down the woman and punching her in February 2025, striking her in the chest with barbecue tongs in June 2025, and damaging her keys in that same month.
The assaults sparked Shepherd’s recall to prison.
He was originally jailed for six years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown when his speedboat crashed during a first date.
Shepherd skipped his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, before he was eventually extradited back to the UK to serve his sentence.
He was set free on licence in January 2024, but faced recall to prison in September last year after he was accused of violence towards a new partner.
In February 2025, Shepherd admitted pinning down the woman and “punching her several times, causing bruising to her arm and top of leg” during an argument.
In the second incident, in June 2025, Shepherd got angry with his partner for burning a pizza during a barbecue, and “proceeded to hit her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast which caused a permanent scar”.
In his manslaughter trial, the court heard that Shepherd, a web developer, met Ms Brown, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, for a first date, and offered to take her on a ride along the River Thames on his speedboat.
They had both been drinking champagne, and Shepherd handed the controls of the boat to Ms Brown just before it struck a submerged tree and overturned, tipping both of them into the cold water.
He was plucked from the Thames alive, but Ms Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive.
Shepherd denied manslaughter by gross negligence, but skipped the trial while on the run and did not give any evidence in his own defence.
After being brought back to the UK to serve his sentence, he was also jailed for four years at Exeter Crown Court in 2019 for a drink-fuelled attack on a barman on March 16 2018 at The White Hart Hotel in Newton Abbot, Devon.