Jack Shepherd admitted wounding man with bottle in Devon before trial for death of Charlotte Brown

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Jack Shepherd, the man who fled the UK after killing a woman in a speedboat crash, has been sentenced to a further four years in prison for assaulting a barman with a bottle.

The 31-year-old is already serving a six-year prison sentence for the death of Charlotte Brown on the River Thames in December 2015.

He appeared via videolink before Exeter crown court, where he pleaded guilty to wounding with intent on 16 March 2018.

At the time of the unprovoked attack Shepherd was on bail over Brown’s death and following the assault he went on the run and was eventually tracked down to Georgia.

On Thursday Shepherd admitted he had “unlawfully and maliciously” wounded David Beech, a former soldier.

Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said Shepherd and an old school friend had met at the White Hart hotel in Moretonhampstead on the edge of Dartmoor.

Beech politely asked them to leave because they were drunk but as he turned away Shepherd grabbed a bottle of vodka tucked in his back pocket, and holding both hands around the neck of the bottle, he smashed it into Beech’s forehead leaving a wound that had to be stitched and glued in hospital. Beech said he felt as if he had been hit in the head with a baseball bat.

The court heard that Beech had served in the army in Afghanistan, where in 2014 he was shot in the head.

He suffers with PTSD and was working in the hotel as part of his recovery. In a statement he said the attack had made him suffer flashbacks and memory loss.

Shepherd was arrested over the attack but made no comment in police interviews the next day. He then fled the UK.

Stephen Vullo, QC, defending Shepherd, said he had been a successful IT consultant earning £150,000 a year and living on a houseboat on the Thames.

He read a statement from Shepherd in which he apologised unreservedly to Beech. Shepherd said seeing the CCTV made him feel sick and he insisted: “I am not a violent person.” The statement added that he was under strain because of his guilt and grief at Brown’s death and the stress of his marriage break-up.

He said the decision to flee the UK had been made spontaneously and he had not taken any pleasure or pride in evading justice. He added: “I faced the choice of suicide or fleeing and I chose fleeing.

Jailing Shepherd for four years, Judge David Evans told him: “Mr Beech had reasonably asked your friend to leave as he would not be serving a customer who was visibly drunk.

“Your friend headed for the door and Mr Beech then asked you to do likewise, and when you became confrontational he explained why he was asking you to leave.

“You should have left. The CCTV footage, which I have seen in full, shows that you took from your pocket a full glass bottle of vodka which you had brought with you and you held it primed and ready behind your back as Mr Beech reiterated the need to leave.

“Mr Beech then turned to accompany your friend out of the door and you took that opportunity to take the vodka bottle from behind your back and strike Mr Beech across the head with a very hard blow.

“The bottle connected with his forehead and you wounded him in such a way that afterwards he had to be taken to hospital and his wound stitched and glued.

“He described the stunning effect of the blow as being like a blow from a baseball bat.”

During the hearing, Shepherd appeared to sob and wipe tears from his face.