Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has freedom bid turned down simply 5 months after being despatched again to jail
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has been refused parole and is set to remain behind bars for the foreseeable future, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The self-styled Casanova was jailed in 2019 for killing his 24-year-old date Charlotte Brown by drunkenly flipping his defective speedboat on the River Thames and later savagely attacking a barman.
Parole Board bosses have now rejected a bid for freedom launched just five months after he was recalled for breaching the terms of his early release.
The smirking killer was released in January 2024 but recalled in September 2025 after breaching the conditions.
It was reported at the time that he was arrested after a complaint on August 4 about his ‘coercive and controlling behaviour and assault’.
Just weeks later his case was referred back to the Parole Board, which has rejected a bid for him to be released.
The one-time fugitive, who fled Britain to the former Soviet state of Georgia, will now remain in prison.
A spokesman for the Parole Board said there had been a refusal of release at a paper review.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd (pictured) has been refused parole and is set to remain behind bars for the foreseeable future, the Daily Mail can reveal
Charlotte Brown, 24, was thrown from Shepherd’s boat when it capsized on the River Thames in December 2015
At a paper review, experts assess detailed written evidence of the case. The panel reviews documents outlining the original offence, previous convictions, behaviour in prison and whether they have completed any relevant courses.
They are also likely to assess any potential release plans.
Shepherd now has 28 days to request an oral hearing before the decision becomes final.
A source said: ‘Shepherd is arrogant and is likely to have believed he’d walk free within weeks, insisting he’d done nothing wrong.
‘This will come as a relief to the family of his victim. They have been through hell. He has laughed at justice at virtually each step of the process.’
Shepherd, now 37, was jailed in 2019 for gross negligence manslaughter after killing Charlotte Brown on a first date in December 2015 after crashing his speedboat on the River Thames.
Back then, shameless Shepherd skipped bail rather than face trial for killing Miss Brown, 24, of Clacton, Essex. He spent 10 months on the run in Georgia, until he was flushed out of his hideaway by the Daily Mail in 2019.
His trial was told that ‘Captain Jack’ Shepherd was showing off by drunkenly zooming up the Thames in the defective craft he had bought to ‘pull girls’.
Charlotte was killed when Shepherd took her on a high speed ride past the Houses of Parliament in his defective speedboat
The one-time fugitive, who fled Britain to the former Soviet state of Georgia, will now remain in prison
When he flipped the 14ft craft after hitting a submerged log, Charlotte was thrown into the icy waters in darkness. He was rescued but Charlotte drowned.
Hauled back to London, the fugitive was given a 10-year sentence – six years for the speedboat manslaughter in London plus four years for viciously ‘glassing’ a barman in a Devon hotel who had refused him a drink.
He was released from HMP Dovegate in January 2024 after serving half of his six-year sentence – the standard release point for many determinate prisoners – but was returned to custody more than a year later for breaching his licence conditions.
The Ministry of Justice does not disclose the specific reasons for licence recalls, though offenders released early must comply with strict supervision requirements and can be sent back to prison if those conditions are broken.
Charlotte’s father, Graham Brown, reacted to news of Shepherd’s return to custody at the time by saying: ‘He’s back where he belongs.’
He told The Sun: ‘He’s never shown remorse for his part in the death of my daughter. I think about her every day. The pain is never far away.
‘I’ll never forgive him and still believe he poses a risk to females.’
He told Sky News last year: ‘The pure fact he took my daughter out on a speed boat at 10pm, without any life jackets, on a very dangerous stretch of the River Thames and accelerated up to 30 knots and then say it was her fault.
Smirking Jack Shepherd was released in January 2024 but recalled in September 2025 after breaching the terms of his early release
‘This is his pattern of behaviour. This is what Shepherd did. Nothing what he said can be believed.’
Shepherd had insisted that Charlotte was at the wheel when his boat hit a log and capsized near Wandsworth Bridge, implying that she was partly to blame.
But a witness on the balcony of a riverside flat challenged his story by saying she saw a single figure at the helm looking into the water, before the boat hit a pier.
Mother Roz Wickens, 58, spoke to the Daily Mail in January 2025 about her continuing anguish over the loss of her daughter.
She said: ‘I will continue to want to know what happened on the fateful night Charlotte was taken away from us, but I don’t think I ever will.
‘Only he knows what really happened as Charlotte cannot speak for herself. But if he came out with anything now, I wouldn’t know if it was true because of all the stories he has told.’
Shepherd – a self-styled Casanova – got married to someone else just a day after police quizzed him about the accident that killed Charlotte.
The killer and his wife had a baby, born less than a year after the death of business consultant Charlotte.
Before being rescued he was heard crying to rescuers ‘help me’ rather than ‘us’.
