SPEEDBOAT killer Jack Shepherd has been arrested in Georgia after handing himself in to authorities after spending months as a fugitive.
He went on the run pending his Old Bailey trial over the death of 24-year-old Charlotte Brown, and was convicted in his absence in July last year.
Georgia’s embassy in London said he surrendered himself to police on Wednesday, after her family increased their calls for him to return to face justice.
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Her father, Graham Brown, celebrated the move, writing on Facebook: “Justice for Charlotte is close!”
A heavily-bearded Shepherd was seen smiling as he entered a police station in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.
Then, he told reporters: “I was in a tragic accident.”
Ms Brown, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, died in December 2015 when 31-year-old Shepherd’s boat flipped into the wintry waters of the River Thames in London.
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Shepherd, from Abergavenny, was sentenced in his absence to six years in prison for manslaughter by gross negligence.
A spokesman for the Georgian embassy said: “He has just surrendered himself to the Georgian Police and now the police undertakes relevant detaining formalities.”
The family of Ms Brown, known to loved ones as Charli, ramped up pressure in recent weeks and met with Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday and renewed calls for Shepherd to surrender himself.
A day later Shepherd – wearing a long coat, jeans and a checked scarf – waved and smiled as he walked into the station from a black car, footage on Georgian television station Rustavi2 showed.
Speaking to journalists, he said: “Yes my name is Jack Shepherd, I was involved in a tragic accident… in which a lady called Charlotte Brown tragically died.”
Scotland Yard, the force leading the investigation, said officers had been updated by the NCA on the development and are awaiting confirmation of his identity.
But, the Metropolitan Police added that once identity was secured extradition proceedings “will begin immediately” against Shepherd, who was wanted on an international arrest warrant.
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