Jack Shepherd, the man convicted of killing 24-year-old Charlotte Brown in a speedboat crash on the River Thames, has been released from prison. Shepherd, 36, was jailed for six years for manslaughter by gross negligence after Ms Brown died when the boat capsized on a first date in 2015.
Shepherd was freed automatically after serving half of his sentence, as is standard practice in England and Wales for fixed-term sentences. He was also serving a concurrent four-year term for an unrelated assault on a barman, which he received in 2019.
The pair had met on an online dating site and were drinking champagne on the boat, which was in poor condition, when it hit a submerged tree trunk and capsized. Shepherd survived but Ms Brown was found unconscious and later died in hospital.
Shepherd initially went on the run and was convicted in his absence at the Old Bailey in 2018. He later handed himself in to police in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was extradited to the UK. Appeal judges ruled in July 2020 that the 78 days he spent in custody in Georgia should count as time served, advancing his release date.
Upon release, Shepherd will be supervised by probation staff and must comply with licence conditions. If he breaches these, he could be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
