Infamous speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is set to be released from jail after serving just half his six-month sentence for manslaughter – despite the family of his victim saying the 34-year-old has shown “zero remorse” since the tragedy eight years ago. Charlotte Brown, 24, from Clacton in Essex, was killed after Shepherd, from Exeter in Devon, who had been drinking, flipped his boat on the Thames in 2015.
However, his determinate terms mean as things stand, he will be freed in January 2024.
Ms Brown died on December 8, 2015, following a boozy date with Shepherd, at the end of which he persuaded her to take a trip with him on his boat.
However, he then crashed it into a log and flipped it and while he managed to save himself, Ms Brown was later pulled unconscious and unresponsive from the water.
A subsequent post-mortem examination found she died from water immersion.
Ms Brown’s father Graham told The Sun: “It goes to show how outrageous our criminal justice system is.
“The family is devastated. We will never get over it. “She would’ve been 31 this month.
“We miss her terribly. Shepherd has shown no remorse.”
Prior to his trial in the UK, Shepherd triggered international headlines after fleeing to Georgia, and was jailed for manslaughter by gross negligence in his absence in July 2018.
The court was told he was over twice the legal driving limit when the accident occurred, with investigators also identifying a number of faults with the craft.
He finally surrendered to police in Tbilisi the following January.
However, even after his arrest, Shepherd denied his guilt, claiming Ms Brown had been at the wheel when the accident occurred.
He was last year moved to HMP Frankland in Country Durham, where other killers including Soham murderer Ian Huntley, and Levi Bellfield, whose victims include 14-year-old Millie Dowler, are incarcerated.
Shepherd, who is a father of one, is serving a consecutive term for hitting a barman in the face with a bottle in 2018, with the attack, at a pub in Newton Abbott in the west country, caught on CCTV camera.
A Ministry of Justice source said: “He has kept his head down and quietly done his time. He knows that a determinate sentence means his case doesn’t have to go to the Parole Board for its approval.
“If he behaves then there is no reason to keep him in jail beyond his halfway point.
“He will be free to simply walk out the door.”
Express.co.uk has approached the MoJ for an official comment.
