Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has today admitted to violently attacking his girlfriend and burning one of her breasts with barbecue tongs.
The 38-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm as well as damaging property.
Shepherd was originally jailed for ten years for manslaughter in 2018 over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown when his speedboat crashed during a first date.
The trial heard ‘Captain Jack’ was showing off by drunkenly zooming up the Thames in the defective craft he had bought to ‘pull girls’.
Shepherd skipped his Old Bailey trial while on the run in Georgia, before he was eventually extradited to the UK to serve his sentence.
He was set free on licence in January 2024 but was recalled to prison in September last year after he was accused of violence towards his new partner.
Appearing via video link at Isleworth Crown Court from HMP Swaleside in Kent today, Shepherd admitted to pinning his girlfriend down during a row in February last year and ‘punching her several times’ on her arm and thigh.
The woman, who is in her 50s, was left with bruises following the vicious attack.
In another assault Shepherd lashed out at her with tongs and burned her left breast after his pizza was overcooked at a barbecue. She was left with a permanent scar following the attack.
Shepherd began dating the woman in August 2024, after he was released from prison on licence that January. The pair met after Shepherd moved to Ealing, west London, where he rented a room in the same block of flats as her.
Four months into their relationship Shepherd began to call her an ‘old lady hag’ and a ‘rat’, prosecutors said.
Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd, pictured in 2019 at a court in Georgia, has admitted assaulting his new girlfriend
Charlotte Brown, 24, was thrown from Shepherd’s boat when it capsized on the River Thames during a first date in December 2015
Ms Brown was killed when Shepherd took her on a ride past the Houses of Parliament
Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, remanded Shepherd into custody until a sentencing hearing on September 4.
He added that the ‘extraordinary’ feature of Shepherd’s case was the ‘notoriety’ he gained by being the killer of Ms Brown, which became a featured on a documentary on Netflix.
Katherine Lloyd prosecuting said: ‘The case has been fully reviewed by the Crown Prosecution Service together with myself and these plea are acceptable.’
Shepherd pleaded guilty to three offences as prosecutors agreed to drop two other allegations, of controlling or coercive behaviour and intentional suffocation.
All of the offences relate to the period between late 2024 and August 2025.
Shepherd’s garnered national attention after the shocking details of Ms Brown’s death were revealed in court.
The pair had been on a first date at the Shard in December 2015 when they decided to take a speedboat down the Thames.
Shepherd’s trial was told that he was showing off by drunkenly zooming up the Thames in the defective craft he had bought to ‘pull girls’.
When he flipped the 14ft craft after hitting a submerged log, Ms Brown was thrown into the icy waters in darkness and drowned.
Rather than explain his actions after being rescued, cowardly Shepherd went on the run to Georgia, and was eventually tried in his absence in July 2018 – when he was sentenced to six years in prison.
The Daily Mail launched an investigation to find him and successfully did so in January 2019. He was extradited back to Britain from Georgia in April that year.
Months later, Shepherd was sentenced to a further four years for a vicious ‘glassing’ attack on a barman at a Devon hotel.
He was freed halfway through a ten-year sentence for the manslaughter of Ms Brown in January 2024 before being recalled to prison in September 2025 after breaching his licence conditions.
The Daily Mail reported at the time that he had been arrested following a complaint on August 4 about his ‘coercive and controlling behaviour and assault.’
