Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is on his way back to face justice in the UK.
The fugitive was handcuffed as he was led aboard a Georgian Airways flight to London Gatwick.
Flanked by Georgian prison guards officers, he looked grim faced as he departed the cell where he has been locked up since being arrested in January.
Wearing an open neck white shirt, navy blazer and blue jeans, he was taken by prison van to the airport where he was handed over to the custody of two Metropolitan Police officers for the flight to London.
On board the flight from Tbilisi today, Shepherd told reporters he ‘wasn’t thinking’ when he went on the run just before his manslaughter trial last August and described why he was appealing the decision to charge him.
He said: ‘Charlotte’s family appealed the CPS decision not to prosecute me after nine months. They appealed that decision and now I’m appealing this one.’
Shepherd admitted he felt responsible for Charlotte Brown’s death, but not to the extent of manslaughter, and said he wished he had spoken to her family in the aftermath of the tragedy to explain what happened, before the case came to court.
Shepherd is pictured in his seat during his flight back to the UK ahead of a court appearance on Thursday at the Old Bailey
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is finally being extradited from Georgia to the UK today after 10 months on the run from the law
Shepherd is led away from his prison cell as he makes his way to a flight bound for the UK
He added: ‘I regret that I did not speak to [Charlotte’s family] sooner. I see that now. I wasn’t thinking at the time, I was acting on emotional and fear and I made a mistake.’
Shepherd not speaking to Miss Brown’s family was his second biggest mistake, after taking the boat out on the Thames in December 2015.
The 31-year-old is expected to appear at the Old Bailey in London tomorrow.
He will be sent to jail to belatedly start his six-year jail sentence for the manslaughter of Miss Brown, who died when his speedboat flipped on the River Thames on their first date.
He could also face extra jail time for his decision to run away. He skipped bail ahead of his Old Bailey trial last year and fled to Georgia where he began a new life in the former Soviet republic.
The trial went ahead without him and a jury found him guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence because his speedboat was defective and Shepherd – who styled himself ‘Captain Jack’ – was drunk when it capsized.
He told reports today he was prepared for prison life and that he had received legal advice that suggested his appeal would be successful.
Shepherd was on the run for 10 months until a Mail investigation tracked him down in Georgia.
He handed himself in to police on January 23, but spent two months fighting extradition, saying he wanted to stay in Georgia, where he found a glamorous new girlfriend, amateur model Maiko Tchanturidze, 24, who is the same age as Miss Brown when she died.
Shepherd, 31, has left his prison cell in Georgia and is due to fly to Britain imminently to begin a six-year prison sentence for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown, 24
Shepherd is pictured in the back of a police van as he is taken to a local airport ahead of his flight to Britain this afternoon
Charlotte Brown who died after a speedboat crash on the Thames in December 2015. She was on a first date with Shepherd
She wept when she said goodbye in his prison in the capital Tbilisi earlier this week and vowed to stay true to him, saying: ‘I will come to England to visit him in prison, if I can get a visa.’
Amateur model Miss Tchanturidze, 24, declared she would wait for Shepherd and would apply for a visa to visit him in jail in London.
Shepherd, who is married with a young son, will appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday where a judge is expected to order him to belatedly start his six-year sentence for the manslaughter of Miss Brown.
The business consultant, from Clacton, Essex, died on her first date with Shepherd in December 2015 when he took her for a drunken ride in his defective speedboat which flipped on the Thames.
Web designer Shepherd fled to Georgia ahead of his trial last July, and was convicted in his absence.
He caused outrage by launching an appeal – funded by legal aid – from his hideaway and the Daily Mail offered a £25,000 reward in the hunt to find him.
Shepherd started dating Miss Tchanturidze, a former TV journalist, within weeks of his arrival in the former Soviet republic, but neglected to tell her he was a wanted fugitive.
After eight months together, he tearfully confessed to being a convicted killer shortly before handing himself in to police on January 23, but told her the accident was not his fault.
Yesterday she said: ‘I will definitely stand by him. I can’t wait to see him again. Jack is fearful about what will happen, but he is holding it together.
Maiko Tchanturidze at a court in Tbilisi last month for an extradition hearing for Jack Shepherd
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd faces years behind bars in Britain after he was found guilty in his absence last August and handed a six-year jail term
During the Old Bailey trial jurors were told Shepherd’s speedboat was found to have a number of defects
‘Saying goodbye was an emotional moment. But I know I will see him again. I will come to England to visit him in prison, if I can get a visa.’
Miss Tchanturidze – who took Shepherd to meet her family in Kutaisi, 140 miles west of the capital, last October – has previously said: ‘He is the best person in the world. Everything the media is saying about him is false.’
Today Shepherd’s glamorous Georgian lawyer Mariam Kublashvili also paid him a final visit.
The former model, who starred on Georgia’s version of Strictly Come Dancing, said: ‘I felt like I was going to cry. This may be the last time we’ll see each other.’
No date has yet been set for Shepherd’s appeal, which is based on perceived legal errors made by the judge in relation to his police interview.
He has issued a reluctant apology to Miss Brown’s parents but still blames her, insisting she was driving at the time the speedboat capsized.
Whenever he is free again, he has said he will not return to his wife but wants to secure access to his two-year-old son.
Shepherd started dating Miss Tchanturidze, a former TV journalist, within weeks of his arrival in the former Soviet republic