Jack Shepherd has admitted violently assaulting a woman, including hitting her on the chest with a set of barbecue tongs. The 38-year-old pleaded guilty earlier at Isleworth Crown Court by prison video link to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and to damaging property.
The assaults took place in February and June last year, and led to Shepherd being recalled to prison. He was originally jailed for 10 years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown, after his speedboat crashed during a first date.
What did Shepherd admit in court?
During the hearing on Tuesday, Shepherd pleaded guilty to three offences. He admitted pinning down the woman and punching her in February 2025, striking her in the chest with barbecue tongs in June 2025, and damaging her keys in that same month.
Prosecutors agreed to drop two other allegations of controlling or coercive behaviour and intentional suffocation.
Shepherd was set free on licence in January 2024, but faced recall to prison in September last year after he was accused of violence towards a woman. News of his latest crimes first emerged last month in a Parole Board report about his recall to prison.
Why was Shepherd originally jailed?
Shepherd was originally jailed for 10 years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown when his speedboat crashed during a first date. Brown, from Clacton, Essex, was fatally thrown from his speedboat on the River Thames, when it hit a submerged tree trunk, in December 2015.
Shepherd and Brown had been drinking champagne before he took her on the ill-fated boat trip past the Palace of Westminster.
He was plucked from the Thames alive, but Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive and died later in hospital.
Charlotte Brown died in December 2015 when Shepherd took her on a date on his speedboat
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.
He skipped his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, before he was eventually extradited back to the UK to serve his sentence. He eventually handed himself in to police in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2019, 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.
What happened after his release?
Shepherd was released in January 2024 and then returned to prison in September 2025, over what was reported at the time as a breach of his licence conditions. He was later recalled to prison after being accused of violence towards a woman.
Charlotte Brown died in December 2015 when Shepherd took her on a date on his speedboat. The fatal crash happened on the River Thames when the boat hit a submerged tree trunk.
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Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd returned to jail
Speedboat killer jailed after fleeing UK
