Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd admits attacking new partner with barbecue tongs

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has admitted violently attacking a new partner following his release from prison.

The 38-year-old was jailed for 10 years at the Old Bailey for killing 24-year-old Charlotte Brown in December 2015.

They had met on a dating website before Shepherd took her for a champagne-fuelled meal at the Shard ending in a high-speed ride up the River Thames.

But the boat was riddled with defects and capsized after clipping a partially submerged tree trunk, throwing the pair into the icy water, causing Charlotte’s death.

Shepherd was convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence in his absence after going on the run to Georgia on the eve of his trial and sentenced on his return to the UK.

He was set free on license in January 2024 but faced recall to prison in September last year after he was accused of violence towards a woman.

Shepherd pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property at Isleworth Crown Court today.

Prosecutors agreed to drop two other allegations of controlling or coercive behavior and intentional suffocation.

Shepherd entered his guilty pleas over a video link from HMP Swaleside in Kent.

He has 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.

Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, remanded Shepherd into custody until a sentencing hearing in September.

The judge ordered a probation report on Shepherd’s progress when he was free from prison in 2024 and the first half of 2025.

Shepherd told the court himself that his latest release date from prison, at the end of the manslaughter sentence, is in January 2029.

According to a prosecution summary of the case, Shepherd has admitted pinning down the woman and ‘punching her several times causing bruising to her arm and top of leg’ during an argument.

In the second incident, Shepherd got angry with his partner for burning a pizza during a barbecue, and ‘proceeded to hit her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast which caused a permanent scar’.

Jurors in his manslaughter trial heard that he used the speedboat as part of his ‘seduction routine’.

After meeting Charlotte online, they shared two bottles of wine over dinner at The Oblix restaurant at The Shard.

He then invited her back to his houseboat in Hammersmith where they had more drinks before heading out on his red speedboat.

In addition to the poor visibility, the 1980s model was riddled with defects including faulty steering, damage to the windscreen, and there was no kill switch attached to cut the engine should the driver go overboard.

Charlotte died from cold water immersion shortly after being pulled unresponsive from the water.

After being brought back to the UK to serve his sentence, Shepherd was also jailed for four years at Exeter Crown Court in 2019 for a drink-fuelled attack on a barman in March 16 2018 at The White Hart Hotel in Newton Abbot, Devon.

News of his latest crimes first emerged last month in a Parole Board report about his recall to prison.

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