Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd freed from jail

Jack Shepherd was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has been released from prison after he was jailed for six years over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown on a date.

Ms Brown died in 2015 after she was thrown from the boat when it capsized on the River Thames after hitting a submerged tree trunk.

Shepherd, 36, was freed, with conditions, after serving half of his sentence behind bars.

He was also serving a concurrent term of four years for an unrelated assault.

Charlotte Brown, known as Charli, was a business development consultant from London

Shepherd and Ms Brown were on a first date after meeting on an online dating site.

The pair had been drinking champagne and the boat was in poor condition, the original trial heard.

Shepherd was plucked from the Thames alive, but Ms Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive and died later in hospital.

A prosecution witness showed jurors various alleged defects with the boat, such as a "wobbly" steering wheel

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.

Release guidance

When a person in England and Wales is given a sentence of imprisonment for a period of time, the law allows for prisoners to be released on licence to serve the last part of their sentence in the community.

Depending on the type of sentence, they can be:

• released from prison automatically at the halfway point of their sentence

• released at the two thirds point of their sentence if the Parole Board decides it is no longer necessary to keep them in prison for the protection of the public

• released after the end of the minimum term of a life sentence if the Parole Board decides it is no longer necessary to keep them in prison for the protection of the public.

A person released on licence will be supervised by probation staff and must comply with certain conditions. If they breach the conditions of their licence they can be returned to prison to serve part, or all, of the remainder of their sentence in prison.

Source: House of Commons Library

The following year Shepherd handed himself in to police in Tbilisi, Georgia, 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.

Jack Shepherd was held at a prison in Tbilisi, Georgia, and then sent back to the UK

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.

In July 2020, appeal judges ruled that the 78 days he spent in custody in Georgia should count as time served, meaning an earlier release date than would originally have been expected.

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