Jailed: Speedboat killer who attacked girlfriend with barbecue tongs 'over burned pizza'

Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has been jailed for 20 months with a further four years on extended licence after violently assaulting his girlfriend, including stabbing her with pointed barbecue tongs.

The 39-year-old was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court, having previously pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a charge of damaging property.

The assaults, which happened in February and June last year, sparked Shepherd’s recall to prison.

Shepherd skipped his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, before he was eventually extradited back to the UK to serve his sentence.

Among his latest offending, Shepherd pinned down and punched his girlfriend during an argument, and stabbed her with sharply pointed barbecue tongs after she remarked that he had burned a pizza.

A court artist sketch of Jack Shepherd appearing via video link at Isleworth Crown Court

PA Wire

According to a prosecution summary of the case, he started dating the woman – who is in her 50s – in August 2024, but towards the end of the year she accused him of being abusive and threatening.

In February 2025, Shepherd 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, in June 2025, Shepherd got angry with his partner over a burned pizza and “proceeded to hit her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast which caused a permanent scar”.

In his manslaughter trial, the court heard that Shepherd, a web developer, met Ms Brown, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, for a first date, and offered to take her on a ride along the River Thames on his speedboat.

Charlotte Brown died after a speedboat date in December 2015

PA

They had both been drinking champagne, and Shepherd handed the controls of the boat to Ms Brown just before it struck a submerged tree and overturned, tipping both of them into the cold water.

He was plucked from the Thames alive, but Ms Brown was found unconscious and unresponsive.

Shepherd denied manslaughter by gross negligence, but skipped the trial while on the run and did not give any evidence in his own defence.

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