Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd jailed for attacking partner

The 39-year-old, previously of Abergavenny, 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.

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, the court heard.

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

A court artist's sketch of Jack Shepherd appearing via video link at Isleworth Crown Court. (Image: Liz Cook/PA)

The pair began dating in August 2024 after meeting in shared accommodation and becoming friends playing badminton together.

In the first incident, the woman, in her 50s, and Shepherd were having an argument when the defendant “pinned her down and punched her several times”, prosecutor Katherine Lloyd told the court.

In June 2025, the defendant had been drinking wine and beer when his partner made a comment that he had burned the pizza on the barbecue.

Jack Shepherd (Image: Steve Parsons/PA)

“The defendant stabbed her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast which caused a wound which bled,” the prosecutor said.

The same month, Shepherd committed criminal damage when he followed his partner outside during an argument.

She went to get in her car and put her keys in the ignition, before Shepherd reached into her car window to grab the keys and broke them.

The court heard Shepherd was originally jailed for six years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown when his speedboat crashed during their first date.

Charlotte Brown (Image: Metropolitan Police/PA)

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.

After being brought back to the UK to serve his sentence, he was also jailed for a further 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.

Mitigating, George Payne said Shepherd was “genuinely very ashamed of his behaviour”.

“The behaviour is driven by his abuse of alcohol and is a feature that has existed for a long time,” Mr Payne said.

But Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, rejected that, telling him: “As for mitigation you have expressed through your advocate acceptance of responsibility and remorse but I place no faith or value in such expressions of acceptance or remorse from you.

“Your pattern is to commit offences and afterwards apologise, and produce excuses. Your prepared statement sought to shift blame anywhere but yourself.”

Jack Shepherd (Image: Metropolitan Police/PA)

Judge Edmunds said the impact of Shepherd’s violence on his partner had been “aggravated by your notoriety”.

He jailed him for 20 months, with a further four years on extended licence.

The court heard Shepherd’s latest release date on his existing sentence is January 23, 2029, and that he would serve his 20-month sentence concurrently to that.