Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd jailed for assaulting girlfriend with barbecue tongs
Jack Shepherd, known as the speedboat killer, has been jailed for violently assaulting his girlfriend.
Among his latest offending, Shepherd stabbed his girlfriend with sharply pointed barbecue tongs, she said, after remarking that she had burnt a pizza.
The 39-year-old 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.
After skipping his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, he was eventually extradited to the UK to serve his sentence.
Shepherd was released on licence in January 2024 but faced recall to prison last September after accusations that he assaulted a new partner, whom a prosecution summary says is a woman in her 50s whom he started dating in August 2024.
He then admitted to pinning her down and hitting her in February 2025, striking her in the chest with the tongs in June 2025, and damaging her keys in that same month.
Shepherd also ‘punched her several times, causing bruising to her arm and top of her leg’ during an argument.
In the second incident, Shepherd got angry during a barbecue and ‘proceeded to hit her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast, which caused a permanent scar’.
Appearing in Isleworth Crown Court today, he was sentenced to 20 months.
The woman is said to have accused Shepherd of being abusive and threatening towards the end of 2024.
Shepherd previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a charge of damaging property.
Who is Jack Shepherd, and why is he called the speedboat killer?
Shepherd, a web developer, offered to take Ms Brown on a high-speed ride on his speedboat along the River Thames for their first date.
They met on a dating site, and he wanted to impress her.
Neither was wearing a life jacket, and Shepherd was twice over the legal limit, as they had both been drinking champagne and had two bottles of wine during a £150 meal in central London.
Mobile phone footage of Ms Brown’s final moments heard her shouting that they were going ‘so fast’, with Shepherd driving at more than double the 12-knot speed limit.
He handed her the controls shortly before the boat struck a submerged tree and overturned.
The two were tipped into the freezing water, and while Shepherd was pulled out alive, Ms Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive.
Paramedics tried to save her, but she was already in cardiac arrest and had hypothermia.
Shepherd, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, denied manslaughter by gross negligence but did not give evidence to defend himself while at large, and was found guilty at the Old Bailey in his absence.
Prosecutors established that Shepherd operated the poorly maintained boat with faulty steering at dangerous speeds in the dark, despite knowing he and Ms Brown had had too much to drink.
And despite knowing Ms Brown was inexperienced and had never piloted a boat before, he still let her take the wheel.
After months on the run, he surrendered to authorities and was brought back to the UK to serve his prison sentence.
He was also jailed for four years in 2019 at Exeter Crown Court over a drink-fuelled attack on a barman on March 16, 2018, at The White Hart Hotel in Newton Abbot, Devon.
Deputy Editor
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