Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd ‘faked sadness and remorse’ following the crash that killed 24-year-old Charlotte Brown, a body language expert has claimed.
Faking It, which airs on Saturdays at 10pm on Quest Red and discovery+, focuses on Jack Shepherd, 28, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, who in 2018, was sentenced to six years in prison following a speedboat crash in which his date, Charlotte, was killed.
Bringing the latest of a string of girls back to his apartment after an evening of heavy drinking, the high-flying IT consultant took Charlotte on a late-night sightseeing tour of London. But the trip ended in tragedy when his poorly-maintained boat hit a submerged log, hurling Charlotte into the freezing Thames.
Shepherd was later charged with manslaughter due to negligence, but by the time his trial got underway at the Old Bailey he had already fled the country.
After emerging in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in January 2019, he continued to protest his innocence, and launched an appeal against his conviction.
However, during the programme, a body language expert reveals the tell-tale signs of deception that gave him away as he attempted to distance himself from the blame for causing Charlotte’s death.
Faking It, which airs on Saturdays at 10pm on Quest Red and discovery+, focuses on Jack Shepherd, 28,from Essex, who in 2018, was sentenced to six years in prison following a speedboat crash in which his date, Charlotte, was killed. Pictured, during the police interview the day after the crash
The high-flying IT consultant took Charlotte Brown (pictured) on a late-night sightseeing tour of London, but the trip ended in tragedy when his poorly-maintained boat hit a submerged log, hurling Charlotte into the freezing Thames
With a tissue in hand, Shepherd appears emotional in his interview, recounting to the police what had happened.
But, as Dr Cliff Lansley explains, there are clear indicators of deception that suggest that he’s faking remorse and shedding nothing more than crocodile tears over Charlotte’s death.
‘We see a tissue in his hand, and we also hear a series of dry sniffs, but the tissue is never used; his dry sniffs never develop into anything more than dry sniffs,’ Cliff begins. ‘When people feel genuine sadness, we often see the eyebrows rising in the middle and the mouth going down, and we can hear the breaking of the voice. We hear none of that, and we see none of the signs on the face.’
As Cliff continues, he says Shepherd’s behaviour points to one thing: he’s faking it.
‘Three or four dry sniffs within about ten seconds and almost forcing the voice to sound sad, but there are no indicators that he is feeling sadness here,’ he explains. ‘He is probably faking it.’
A successful IT Consultant, Jack Shepherd prided himself on his lavish lifestyle. He bought himself a speedboat because, in his words, “he wanted to impress and pull the girls.”‘
Dr Cliff says Shepherd’s behaviour points to one thing: he’s faking it. Pictured, during the police interview the day after the crash
Dr Cliff Lansley (pictured) explains there are clear indicators of deception that suggest that he’s faking remorse and shedding nothing more than crocodile tears over Charlotte’s death
And on 8th December 2015, the girl Shepherd was trying to impress was 24-year old Charlotte Brown – the latest in a long string of dates he had instigated.
After eating at a posh London restaurant, Shepherd invited Charlotte back to his houseboat. Following a night of heavy drinking, he took Charlotte out on the Thames on his speedboat, which as Kerry Daynes points out, was defective.
While driving at more than twice the speed limit, the pair hit an underwater obstacle and capsized.
Clinging to the boat’s hull, Shepherd survived, while Charlotte’s body was found 20 minutes later in the icy water. It has never been confirmed who was driving, but the blame rests with Shepherd.
During the interview with police the next day, there were clues in Shepherd’s speech that suggest he was hiding the truth – including how vague he was about the details of the crash, claiming his memory was hazy, a result of heavy drinking.
As Professor of Linguistics Dawn Archer explains, this further underlines Shepherd’s fakery, as he attempts to distance himself from Charlotte’s death.
‘Not remembering completely is normally around something that might be self-incriminating,’ she says. ‘When he remembers things, they help him out, and when he doesn’t remember things, those are the things that might incriminate him.’
Signs in Shepherd’s body language suggest his lack of confidence in his story as he attempts to recount the events leading up to the crash, Dr Cliff claims
And, as Cliff Lansley notes, signs in Shepherd’s body language suggest his lack of confidence in his story, as he attempts to recount the events leading up to the crash.
‘When he makes that claim, we see both shoulders moving up maybe half a centimetre and that twitch there is what we call a gestural slip or gestural leakage,’ he says. ‘That is a double-sided shoulder shrug which to full extent means, “I have no confidence in what I’m just saying.” So, my memory was hazy, but the shoulders say ‘”no, it wasn’t.”‘
In 2018, Shepherd was found guilty of manslaughter by negligence. He shamelessly blamed Charlotte for her own death, claiming that she was the one driving at the time of the crash. However, in a shocking twist, Shepherd fled to Georgia.
Nine months after going on the run, Shepherd eventually handed himself in to local authorities. In front of TV cameras, he brazenly tried to defend himself.
Referring to the crash as a ‘tragic accident,’ Shepherd appeared arrogant and determined to clear his name, exclaiming: ‘I hope that justice will be done and that my appeal will succeed, and that I can just…everyone can move forward with their lives.’
Picking up on this, Dawn Archer argues that Shepherd tried to make himself the centre of attention, continuing to show no remorse for Charlotte.
‘Now what we’re interested in is what happens between the “I” and the self-correction to “everyone,”‘ she says. ‘We have a significant pause at that point. We hear an audible intake of breath and then have an eye closure.
‘What this is telling us is that he’s in impression management mode; this is just someone who thinks of himself first and all the signs come out in his language choices.’
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd should leave prison sooner than expected as a result of a ruling by Court of Appeal judges. Shephered, 32, was extradited from Georgia after a trial in his absence found him guilty of the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown
In the same clip, as Dawn Archer pinpoints, Shepherd’s word choices serve to distance himself from Charlotte’s death.
‘His language choice is especially noticeable when he says, “I was convicted of her manslaughter by negligence,” she says. ‘Notice the difference between “convicted of” and “guilty of.” This is someone who is distancing himself from any sense that he was guilty.’
In his original interview, Shepherd described how his memory was hazy due to the amount of alcohol the pair had drunk during their date. But speaking to TV cameras in 2019, Shepherd backtracked, claiming that the pair were only just over the drink drive limit.
Examining Shepherd’s body language, Cliff Lansley rebuffs the claim, suggesting how Shepherd attempts to lie about the details of the crash to hide his guilt.
‘His claim that he was about the same is cast into doubt by a combination of a deliberate gesture that he’s making and a single-sided hand shrug,’ he begins. ‘That single-sided hand shrug which suggests ‘I have no confidence in what I’m saying’ in the second part of the statement.
‘There’s no other reason to flip the hand over apart from it’s a subconscious that we often make when we have no confidence in the claims we’re making.’
For Cliff, the gesture is a giveaway that Shepherd has something to hide.
‘The fingers are telling us one thing that he wants us to believe and understand, but the wrist is giving away that he wasn’t just over the driving limit,’ he says.
Despite Shepherd’s bid to remain free, he was extradited to the UK in April 2019. Two months later, he lost his appeal against his manslaughter conviction.
On top of the six year sentence for causing Charlotte’s death, he was handed a four-year sentence for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after CCTV footage emerged of him attacking a barman with a vodka bottle in 2018.
Concluding with her assessment of Shepherd, Kerry Daynes is clear: ‘My overall impression of Jack Shepherd is that he is a self-centred, immature, little boy. I can’t understand the arrogance, the lack of consideration that he showed for Charlotte’s family.’
The brand-new series of Faking It airs at 10pm on Saturdays on Quest Red, or stream now on discovery+