Man in hiding after being found guilty over death of date in speedboat crash

A man who was on trial over the death of his date in a speedboat accident is in hiding after being found guilty of manslaughter.

Web designer Jack Shepherd had been trying to impress 24-year-old Charlotte Brown after meeting her on dating website OkCupid.

But their champagne-fuelled first date ended in tragedy when his boat capsized on the Thames in December 2015 and she was thrown into the cold river.

Shepherd, 30, originally from Exeter, had denied manslaughter by gross negligence but was found guilty in his absence at the Old Bailey.

It can now be reported that he skipped bail and failed to attend his trial, to the anger of Ms Brown’s grieving parents.

Shepherd gave instructions to his legal team by phone, but police were unable to track him down and his whereabouts remains unknown.

In the months before Ms Brown’s death, Shepherd had entertained up to 10 women on his 14ft Fletcher Arrowflyte GTO, which he bought on Gumtree, having invited them back to his houseboat in Hammersmith.

• ITV News correspondent Geraint Vincent has been following the trial:

Jack Shepherd was extremely frank with police about why he kept a speedboat – "to pull women", he told them.

After he had let Charlotte Brown take the controls of the boat at the end of their fatal date, he told officers that he "thought it might impress her".

It was what the prosecution in this case described as a "seduction routine" - it had been tried and tested, sometimes to an evidently dangerous extent.

One previous date told the court that when Shepherd took her out on the Thames in his speedboat, the river police pulled him over for going too fast and warned him about not wearing a lifejacket.

For Shepherd, the late night speedboat trips might have been a game, but as the owner and master of that vessel, he had a duty of care towards its passengers.

His cavalier approach and ulterior motives meant that his responsibility for the safety of all on board was terribly compromised.

"Mr Shepherd chose to allow someone who’d had no experience to drive a boat in what is a busy waterway, in the dark," said Julius Capon, from the Crown Prosecution Service.

"His conduct was obviously dangerous and extremely reckless, and that’s why he has been prosecuted for manslaughter by gross negligence."

Over the course of the trial, the court heard how, on 8 December 2015, Shepherd treated Ms Brown to a £150 meal at Oblix in the Shard, where they drank two bottles of wine.

The couple took a taxi back to Shepherd’s place. There they took champagne aboard the speedboat for a trip past the Houses of Parliament.

In mobile phone footage, Ms Brown could be heard shouting that they were going “so fast” as Shepherd drove at more than double the 12 knot speed limit.

• Footage from Charlotte Brown's mobile phone:

On the return journey, Shepherd handed over the controls to business development consultant Ms Brown who followed suit and went “full throttle”.

Moments before the accident, Miss Brown’s sister texted her: “Is he driving this bad boy?” but received no answer.

The speeding boat hit a submerged log and tipped over near Wandsworth Bridge, sending both occupants into the water.

Riverside resident Steven Morrissey told the court that he heard a young man screaming for help.

He said in a statement: “He kept saying ‘Help me, help me, somebody help me’. It was just ‘Help me” – not ‘us’, or ‘her’.”

Shepherd was found clinging to the hull and Ms Brown was pulled from the water unconscious and unresponsive.

Paramedics battled in vain to save her as she was already in cardiac arrest and suffering from hypothermia.

Shepherd told police he had made efforts to find Ms Brown immediately after the crash.

“I was feeling with my legs to see if she was [under the capsized boat]. I don’t think she was there but I didn’t know," he told them. "I just started shouting for help, ‘please help, please help’.”

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC told jurors: “It was cold, it was dark, we submit, it was sheer madness."

The life jackets had been tucked away, the kill cord was not connected and the boat had a number of defects, including faulty steering, the court heard.

Jurors were told the defendant denied manslaughter on the basis he had no “duty of care” towards Ms Brown.

It can now be reported that Shepherd told his lawyers in mid-May he would not attend his Old Bailey trial in July but the Crown Prosecution Service and court only found out a week before.

In legal argument, the prosecution said police had spoken to his mother on 27 June and was told he had not been in contact since March and his phone number was no longer connected.

His defence team insisted they did not know where he was even though his solicitor had maintained telephone contact.

It later emerged he had been receiving daily updates from the trial from his legal team.

But they successfully argued that the reason for his absence should be kept from jurors deciding his case and they should only be told he was not in the dock and had “chosen” not to given evidence.

Mr Jafferjee said the lawyers had been “dancing on pins” as they debated exactly what to tell the jury, as the defence objected to the words “failed to attend”.

Shepherd is also wanted by police for failing to attend court over another unrelated matter.