Speedboat killer told to ‘tell truth’ by victim’s dad ahead of release | UK News

The father of a woman who was killed by her date in a speedboat crash has pleaded with the man to reveal ‘what really happened’ ahead of his imminent release from prison.

Graham Brown’s daughter Charlotte, 24, from Essex, died after being flung into the River Thames when Jack Shepherd’s boat hit a submerged tree in December 2015.

Shepherd, who was also thrown into the water, has maintained that he had temporarily handed her the controls to the vessel.

The 34-year-old was handed a ten-year prison sentence in 2018: six years for manslaughter by gross negligence over Charlotte’s death, followed by four years for a separate, unrelated assault in a pub.

He was due to be released on Friday after serving half the sentence, a decision slammed by Mr Brown as ‘outrageous’.

Charlotte’s father told Sky News on Thursday: ‘Shepherd has never said what really happened that night.

‘And what he has said conflicts with what we know did happen and what came out in the trial.

‘The pure fact that he took my daughter out on a dodgy speedboat at 10 o’clock at night, without lifejackets, on a very dangerous stretch of the River Thames and accelerated up to 30 knots, and then to turn around and say, it was her fault…

‘I wish he would just be able to tell the truth and state clearly what happened. I feel that he will never do that.’

The pair had matched on a dating app and met for the first time for dinner at a restaurant in the Shard skyscraper near London Bridge.

Shepherd then took Charlotte for a late-night ride along the Thames in his speedboat, which was found to be defective.

Mr Brown added: ‘My daughter would not have been driving that boat. In my own mind, I’m fairly confident that she thought it was just going to meander, turn around, and go back.

‘She would have had no idea what he was going to do. She would have been absolutely terrified.’

Following the crash, which was forceful enough to overturn the boat, the pair were rescued – but Charlotte later died of her injuries.

Shepherd, who told police they had drunk champagne but insisted Charlotte was driving the boat when it crashed, was charged with manslaughter.

He fled to Georgia and was sentenced in his absence in July 2018, but only gave himself up in January 2019.

Mr Brown, who has two surviving daughters, has previously said the family will ‘never get over’ what happened to Charlotte, who would now be 31.

Earlier this year, The Sun reported that prison officers believed Shepherd had ‘kept his head down and quietly done his time’.

A Ministry of Justice source told the newspaper: ‘If he behaves then there is no reason to keep him in jail beyond his halfway point. He will be free to simply walk out the door.’

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