Jack Shepherd, the man jailed over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown in a Thames speedboat crash, has been sent back to prison after violently attacking a new girlfriend only a year after his release.
The 39-year-old assaulted the woman, known in court documents as Ms X, in two separate incidents, including pinning her down and punching her repeatedly before later striking her in the chest with barbecue tongs.
Shepherd was sentenced to 20 months in prison, followed by four years on extended licence, after admitting two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property.
He is expected to remain in custody until January 2029.
Two other allegations—controlling or coercive behaviour and intentional suffocation—were dropped by prosecutors.
Two attacks on the same woman
Shepherd met Ms X online in August 2024, several months after being released from prison in January of that year.
The pair began a relationship and lived in neighbouring rooms at a six-room bedsit in Southall, west London.
According to court documents, the relationship initially appeared to be positive. But by the end of 2024, it had reportedly deteriorated into a pattern of violence and coercive behaviour.
In February 2025, Shepherd pinned Ms X down and punched her several times, leaving bruising on her arm and the upper part of her leg.
Several months later, in June, another confrontation reportedly erupted after she burnt a pizza.
During the incident, Shepherd struck her in the chest with a pair of barbecue tongs. The attack left her with a permanent scar.
She eventually reported him to police.
Neighbours later described hearing disturbing arguments between the couple, including screaming and shouting.
One neighbour recalled Ms X saying that she was frightened and alleging that Shepherd had put his hand around her neck and threatened her.
Another resident said the woman had been “alone and in need of someone to talk to” when she first met Shepherd, adding that the relationship began well before turning into what they described as a “nightmare.”
A history that began with Charlotte Brown’s death
Shepherd was already known to the courts for the death of Charlotte Brown, who was killed after being thrown from his speedboat on the River Thames during what was supposed to be their first date in December 2015.
The tragedy unfolded after Shepherd had taken Charlotte out following a £150 dinner at the Shard. The pair had ordered two bottles of wine, and Shepherd had been drinking heavily, while Charlotte, an English literature graduate, reportedly drank very little.
Mobile phone footage captured the speedboat travelling along the Thames at around twice the speed limit shortly before it struck a log and capsized.
Charlotte could be heard crying out in the moments before the crash: “Oh my God, you’re going so fast.”
She died shortly afterwards following cold-water immersion.
Rather than immediately facing justice in Britain, Shepherd fled the country and spent ten months on the run in Georgia.
From fugitive to prisoner
Shepherd being led to a police van as he is due to be returned to the UK after 10 months on the run in Georgia Credit: PA:Press Association
Shepherd was eventually convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence at the Old Bailey in his absence.
He surrendered to authorities in Tbilisi in 2019 and was extradited to the UK, where he was sentenced to six years in prison.
His sentence was later reduced by almost three months.
He had also received a further four-year prison sentence after attacking a barman with a vodka bottle in 2018.
During the period after Charlotte’s death, investigators uncovered further details about Shepherd’s use of the boat. Police found that he had bought it from Gumtree and had taken ten other women out on rides before the fatal crash.
Shepherd had married and had a child after the tragedy. When he eventually surrendered in Georgia, he maintained that Charlotte’s death had been a “tragic accident.”
Charlotte’s father: ‘This proves it beyond doubt’
Charlotte’s father, Graham Brown, has previously described Shepherd as a risk to women.
Following the latest case, he said his concerns had been justified.
“I’ve always said Shepherd remains a risk to women. This proves it beyond doubt,” he said.
“He has no respect for women at all.”
Shepherd was released from prison in January 2024, but his freedom lasted only until his latest alleged offences brought him back into the criminal justice system.
He was arrested on August 5, 2025, and recalled to custody the following month after his licence was revoked.
Now, after admitting the two assaults and the property offence, Shepherd has received another prison sentence.
For Ms X, the attacks brought a new chapter of trauma into a relationship that had begun less than a year after Shepherd walked free from prison.
For Charlotte Brown’s family, meanwhile, the latest conviction has reinforced their long-standing fears about the man they believed remained a danger to women.