UK submits formal extradition request for speedboat killer Jack Shepherd

An official request to extradite speedboat killer Jack Shepherd from Georgia has been submitted by UK authorities.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed it had prepared a request which has been sent to Georgian authorities by the Home Office.

It is unclear when the request was formally submitted. The Home Office did not immediately respond to inquiries.

Shepherd, 31, is currently in prison in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.

His lawyer, Tariel Kakabadze, posted on Facebook saying a court hearing on the extradition was expected to start next week.

Shepherd went on the run and was convicted in his absence last year of killing Charlotte Brown, 24, on a Champagne-laden first date when the speedboat they were in overturned in the Thames.

Ms Brown, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, died after plunging into the icy water in December 2015.

Web designer Shepherd has reportedly written to Ms Brown’s family requesting a meeting “to explain everything that happened that tragic evening”.

The note, obtained by The Sun newspaper, reads: “I want more than anything to talk to Charlotte’s family.

“I wish that I had ignored the police and lawyers and spoken to you three years ago.”

But Ms Brown’s father Graham Brown, 55, of Sidcup, south London, is quoted by the newspaper as saying: “We don’t intend to dignify Shepherd’s comments with a response until the extradition process has been completed and he is finally held accountable for his actions.”

Shepherd, originally from Exeter, was convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey, and sentenced to six years in jail.

He handed himself in to Georgian authorities last month.