The fugitive dubbed the ‘speedboat killer’ was in handcuffs last night having been detained by police in Georgia after nearly ten months on the run.
Jack Shepherd, 31, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison over the death of his date Charlotte Brown, 24, on a drunken boat ride on the Thames in December 2015.
He was convicted in his absence having fled the UK in March last year before his trial.
The Mail has been campaigning for months for British authorities to do more to help bring him to justice, and offered a £25,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
Sporting a thick beard in the Georgian capital of Tblisi last night Shepherd looked almost unrecognisable compared with pictures of the then-fresh-faced web designer taken before his appearance at the Old Bailey prior to his escape.
Last night Charlotte Brown’s family condemned her killer after he blamed her for the tragedy – and then accused her grieving father of waging a vendetta against him.
Shepherd complained of feeling ‘upset’ at reading about himself in the Daily Mail and suggested it was his victim’s own fault that she died because she was driving the speedboat.
Ignoring the jury’s verdict that he – as master of the defective boat – was responsible for its safety, Shepherd declared: ‘It’s very upsetting to read these lies in the newspaper.’
Last night Miss Brown’s father, Graham, 55, said: ‘I’ve always thought Jack Shepherd has acted in very crass, reckless manner – and seeing him on screen now has just confirmed it.
‘He’s a man who can’t accept responsibility for anything. He certainly shows no remorse.’
Shepherd smiled for the camera today. Ignoring the jury’s verdict that he was responsible for the safety of the boat and those on board, he said: ‘It’s very upsetting to read these lies in the newspaper’
Jack Shepherd looks a different man having grown a thick beard during his time on the run. Pictured left: at the Old Bailey in 2016. Right: speaking in Georgia after his re-arrest today
Miss Brown’s sister Katie told the BBC: ‘I feel very surprised at how smug he looks to be honest. It just shows a very arrogant man.
‘I don’t understand how someone can go on the run for two crimes and be found guilty and still then just walk straight in with a very smug look on his face and claim innocence. It’s unbelievable.
‘Someone who’s run away from this doesn’t scream an innocent man’s actions to me. Why did he run away if he’s claiming innocence?’
Shepherd said he said he had chosen ‘wonderful’ Georgia to flee to because ‘it was affordable, had generous visa regime and mountains, sea, and it was a country I’d always wanted to visit and I think the culture is very wonderful’.
Jack Shepherd the speedboat killer is led away in handcuffs by Georgian police in Tiblisi
Shepherd grinned as he told reporters he hoped his arrest would help everyone ‘move on’, and confirmed that he plans to appeal his six-year sentence once he arrives in the UK
Shepherd’s lawyer, Marianne Kublashvili, spoke to the press after his arrest in Tbilisi, Georgia
Glossing over the fact he went on the run hours after allegedly glassing a hotel barman, he said: ‘It was quite a rushed decision but there was a lot going for Georgia.’
In an interview with Georgian TV station Rustavi-2 before he handed himself in to police, Shepherd said: ‘Just to clarify something which has been printed in a lot of newspapers such as the Daily Mail, it’s an established fact that Charlotte was driving at the time of the accident.
‘Unfortunately some journalists in the UK have forgotten this and printed that I was driving.
‘Something else they’ve printed which is very hurtful is that I let her drown, and I was just crying ‘help me, help me’ and didn’t tell anyone she was there.
It couldn’t be further from the truth. My main concern was her. I was clinging to the boat saying, ‘leave me in the water and help her, please’ as soon as rescuers arrived.
Charlotte Brown, who died aged 24, on a date on a speedboat with Jack Shepherd on the Thames in 2015
Jack Shepherd smiled and waved to to the camera upon being arrested in Georgia
‘It’s very upsetting to read these lies in the newspaper.’
Speaking about the December speedboat tragedy, Shepherd said: ‘I was involved in a tragic accident in 2015 in which a lady called Charlotte Brown tragically died.
‘After a long period where the police rightly treated it as an accident, after significant pressure from her father, the police decided to prosecute me for manslaughter.
‘The court accepted she was driving at the time of the accident. The thing they say I did wrong was to let her drive my boat. They say that was negligent and that I owed her a duty of care.
‘Although I had had something to drink, I was not tested or anything. Charlotte was tested and was just above the drink-drive limit.
‘It was unwise to go out on the water but not mad.’
Charlotte Brown’s father Graham said of Shepherd: ‘He’s a man who can’t accept responsibility for anything. He certainly shows no remorse’
The family of Charlotte Brown thanked the public for their support
Despite being found guilty by a jury of killing Miss Brown, Shepherd insisted that her father, a civil servant, was to blame for him being convicted. He said: ‘Charlotte Brown’s father works in the prison system of the UK, he’s a civil servant of some influence.
The CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] decided not to prosecute me but he appealed this. He was able to leverage his power in the system to get a QC appointed to oversee the case, which was very unusual.’
Revealing how closely he has been following the Mail’s campaign, he said: ‘The father met with the Home Secretary in the UK and this is testament to the fact he has some kind of leverage within the system.
‘It’s also why there has been so much press coverage in the UK. I’ve only spoken to him once but he took the opportunity to tell me I would have a very bad time in prison.
‘I said, ‘I’m so sorry Graham’ but he didn’t want to hear it and hung up. I feel at risk from him and his power in the prison system, and that’s the reason I ran away. I blamed myself at the time and said I was very drunk and driving too fast, but an assessment of the facts shows we were actually going below the speed limit. I’m very, very frightened about what might happen, but it seemed like this is the right thing to do. I hope justice will prevail and my appeal will be successful.’
Father of Charlotte Brown, Graham, gives a statement to the media outside Portcullis House following a meeting with Home Secretary Sajid Javid on January 22
The speedboat owned by Jack Shepherd who was found guilty of killing his date, Charlotte Brown, in an accident on the Thames
At his home in Sidcup, Kent, Mr Brown thanked the Daily Mail for its help in offering a £25,000 reward to catch his daughter’s killer. He said: ‘It made me cry. That was my emotion. It’s been a long journey. Relieved is a better word – it’s difficult to say I’m delighted when I’ve lost a daughter.
‘Hopefully Shepherd will come back voluntarily and won’t put any legal obstacles in the way. If he does, more fool him.
‘Shepherd is acting the victim – he certainly claims he’s an innocent man. But the jury didn’t find him so. If he was so sure of his innocence he should have stayed and faced his trial.’ Mr Brown added: ‘Not one member of his family has sent any condolences or any expression of remorse.’
Additional reporting: Neil Sears
GOT HIM: Newly-bearded speedboat killer SMILES as he is arrested in former Soviet republic of Georgia after 10 months on the run from six year manslaughter sentence
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd was finally in handcuffs last night after ten months on the run.
Following the Mail’s fight for justice, the 31-year-old was run to ground in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Forced to hand himself in, the smirking fugitive was escorted by police to a detention centre in Tbilisi.
He fled Britain last March before his trial over the death of Charlotte Brown in a reckless and drunken speedboat trip up the Thames.
Yesterday he told reporters his victim caused her own death, saying: ‘Justice will prevail – Charlotte was driving.’ And he claimed her father Graham used his ‘influence’ as a civil servant to raise the profile of the case.
Shepherd is expected to fight attempts to extradite him back to Britain to serve his six-year prison sentence. Legal experts warned he might be able to string out proceedings for months.
The Mail has campaigned for justice for Charlotte Brown’s family and for British authorities to step up pressure to track down fugitive Shepherd
His Georgian lawyer, Tariel Kupatadze, said his client was ‘confident he will be able to prove his innocence and will be acquitted’.
Politicians praised the Mail’s role in bringing the killer to justice. This newspaper highlighted his repeated mockery of the justice system and offered £25,000 for information leading to his capture.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘I fully welcome the news Jack Shepherd is in police custody and would like to thank the Daily Mail for their efforts in publicising this harrowing case.’
Cabinet minister James Brokenshire praised the ‘concerted pressure’ brought about by the Mail.
As Scotland Yard announced the launch of extradition proceedings:
- Miss Brown’s grieving family declared: ‘Justice for Charlotte is close’;
- Met detectives faced ridicule after it emerged they were tipped off six months ago that Shepherd was in Georgia – but only asked for help there last week;
- Shepherd admitted he handed himself in because of the Mail;
- He said he chose Georgia for its ‘beautiful mountains and the sea’;
- The web designer has hired two top local lawyers who boasted their client could stay a free man for months;
- Shepherd claimed 24-year-old Miss Brown’s death was a ‘tragic accident’ and it had been ‘very hurtful’ to read about himself in the Mail.
Last night Miss Brown’s father broke down in tears as he said: ‘Thank goodness he has handed himself in.’
Shepherd was arrested after the speedboat crash but freed on bail by a judge, when he fled to Georgia and never returned
But British lawyers cautioned that the UK’s extradition treaty with Georgia meant Shepherd could stay free for months. Miss Brown died in December 2015 when drunken Shepherd took her for a spin in his defective speedboat on their first date.
Trying to impress her, he tore up the Thames in the dark and when the boat flipped, he cried for rescuers to ‘help me’, not ‘help us’. Miss Brown, a business consultant from Clacton in Essex, was pulled from the water unconscious and was declared dead in hospital.
Shepherd bolted the UK as his manslaughter trial approached. It went ahead in his absence last July and he was convicted and sentenced to six years.
He sparked public outrage by appealing against his conviction from his hideaway – via his London lawyers – and in a further insult obtained legal aid to pay for it.
If he is sent back to Britain, he will face his original sentence, plus extra time for going on the run. He allegedly glassed a barman in a Devon hotel shortly before fleeing the UK and prosecutors have vowed to pursue him with a GBH charge for that too.
Shepherd arrived in Georgia at 3.31am on March 21 last year – arriving from Turkey which he had flown to hours after the glassing incident.
Last night he explained he chose Georgia because it ‘was affordable, had a generous visa regime and mountains, sea, and it was a country I’d always wanted to visit and I think the culture is very wonderful’.
He has been renting a flat in a high-rise in the Bagebi district of the capital Tbilisi.
A known womaniser, he has ‘made many friends’, frequently visited the city’s nightclubs and started to learn Georgian.
Shepherd in Tblisi today. His lawyer said ‘He is prepared to engage in the court process and clear his name.’
Mr Javid, who met Miss Brown’s family on Tuesday, said: ‘I would like to thank the Georgian authorities for their efforts and we will now put all our resources into bringing Jack Shepherd back to the UK as swiftly as possible.’
Mr Brokenshire, who is the family’s MP, said: ‘Shepherd should have handed himself in a long time ago. The important thing now is to ensure the processes are in place to ensure he is speedily returned to the UK and put behind bars for his crime. The family and I are hugely appreciative of the support the Daily Mail has given. The concerted pressure has made the difference and ensured that no one can stick two fingers up at justice and get away with it.’
One of his newly-hired Tbilisi lawyers, Mariam Kublashvili, declared Shepherd was in the ‘mood to fight’.
She said he came here as a tourist, adding: ‘He is prepared to engage in the court process and clear his name.’
Tariel Kakabadze, who is the director of Georgia’s lawyers’ union, added: ‘He called me and explained his situation. He told me about this accident and told me that there is a case against him in the UK.
‘I know he’s been in Tbilisi but he hasn’t been doing anything special. I think he googled Georgia, found out it’s a safe country.
‘He believes that he is innocent and that this was an accident, and it wasn’t his fault. And he’s saying he will do his best to protest his innocence.’
In an interview with TV station Rustavi-2, Shepherd moaned about the Daily Mail’s campaign to find him, saying: ‘Just to clarify something which has been printed in a lot of newspapers such as the Daily Mail, it’s an established fact that Charlotte was driving at the time of the accident.’
After Rustavi-2 carried a report on the manhunt yesterday lunchtime, a friend contacted the station saying Shepherd wanted to hand himself in.
It sent a journalist to interview him. The friend told how Shepherd had been socialising and travelling around the country under his own name.