Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has pleaded guilty to violently assaulting his girlfriend, including attacking her with a set of barbecue tongs.
The 38-year-old pleaded guilty over a prison video link on Tuesday to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property.
The assaults happened in February and June last year, and sparked Shepherd’s recall to prison.
Background of manslaughter conviction
Shepherd was originally jailed for 10 years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown when his speedboat crashed during a first date. He skipped his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, before he was eventually extradited back to the UK to serve his sentence.
He was set free on licence in January 2024, but faced recall to prison in September last year after he was accused of violence towards a new partner.
Guilty pleas at Isleworth Crown Court
At Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, Shepherd pleaded guilty to three offences as prosecutors agreed to drop two other allegations, of controlling or coercive behaviour and intentional suffocation.
Shepherd entered his guilty pleas over a video link from HMP Swaleside in Kent.
He has admitted pinning down the woman and punching her in February 2025, striking her in the chest with barbecue tongs in June 2025, and damaging her keys in that same month.
Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, remanded Shepherd into custody until a sentencing hearing on September 4. The judge ordered a probation report on Shepherd’s progress when he was free from prison in 2024 and the first half of 2025.
Shepherd told the court himself that his latest release date from prison, at the end of the manslaughter sentence, is in January 2029.
Details of the assaults
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 for burning a pizza during a barbecue, and “proceeded to hit her with the barbecue tongs on her left breast which caused a permanent scar”.
She also accused him of “belittling” her with jibes about her weight and age, and accused her of flirting with other men.
As part of the controlling or coercive behaviour charge, which Shepherd denied and was dropped by prosecutors, the woman claimed he had menacingly mentioned a violent former cellmate and allegedly told her it would be her “last day” if she said anything bad to his probation officer.
Further history of violence
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.
News of his latest crimes first emerged last month in a Parole Board report about his recall to prison.
