The small post-Soviet state of Georgia is an attractive destination for all sorts of reasons. Cheese-filled bread, excellent wine, dumplings, the mountains of the north Caucasus, Black Sea beaches, and an old capital city, Tbilisi. It has skiing, swimming, hiking. It’s cheap, with a good climate.
And, for some, it’s the perfect place to disappear.
In March 2018 Jack Shepherd boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from London. He switched planes in Istanbul and arrived in the early hours at Tbilisi’s Shota Rustaveli international airport. Immigration police leafed through his passport. At 3.31am they waved him through.
Shepherd may have looked like your average tourist. Actually he was on the run from the police. In December 2015 he had gone for a late-night speedboat ride on the River Thames in London with Charlotte Brown. It was a first date. Brown was 24. Their boat hit a log near Wandsworth Bridge, and Brown was thrown in darkness into the river. She died in the freezing waters.
Shepherd was subsequently charged with causing manslaughter by gross negligence. In January 2018 he appeared at a court hearing and pleaded not guilty. In March he was seen at his home in Devon. And then he vanished. His trial at the Old Bailey went ahead without him.
For 10 months, Shepherd managed to elude British justice and stay one step ahead of the law. According to sources in Georgia, Shepherd found it relatively easy to embark on a new and anonymous life in Tbilisi, where he went by the name Jack Grant. Locals had no idea he was a fugitive.
Shepherd rented a series of flats in central Tbilisi. He lived in the Bagebi and Saburtalo districts – taking up residence in a typical fading 1960s-built apartment block, known as a Khrushchyovka, and named after the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Washing hung from concrete balconies. Rent was around £250 a month. “From time to time” he changed address, sources said.
At home in the UK, Shepherd worked as a web developer with a portfolio of clients. He was able to continue his freelance career from Tbilisi, taking on new assignments and working with a small group of Georgians.
“It was easy. He didn’t need an office. Everything was done online,” Nino Vardzelashvili, a journalist with Georgia’s main Rustaveli-2 channel, said. She noted that she was never friends with Shepherd, and covered his case as a professional assignment.
According to Vardzelashvili, Shepherd enjoyed his time in Georgia. He got to know one of her female colleagues who worked on the channel’s popular morning show. Shepherd went to bars and restaurants. He attended several “educational events”, lectures or seminars – though he didn’t formally enrol in university or college.
Shepherd travelled across Georgia, Vardzelashvili said. On one roadtrip he went to Kazbegi – high in the Upper Caucasus mountains and along the Georgian military highway. On another trip in the same direction Shepherd visited Gudauri, the country’s premier ski resort, two hours’ drive from Tbilisi.
“He had a great time in Georgia during these 10 months,” Vardzelashvili said. How did he manage to stay incognito for so long? “Nobody knew who he was. Not even the police,” she explained. “The story wasn’t big news here.”
The idyll ended in January when broadcasters and newspapers reported Shepherd was hiding out in Georgia. By this point he had been convicted in absentia and sentenced to six years in jail. Brown’s grieving family met with British home secretary, Sajid Javid. Her father, Graham, pressed for extradition and said Shepherd – now 31 – had to atone for his “crass and reckless actions”.
Meanwhile, Shepherd’s wife said she had told police last year that her husband had fled to Georgia. Why detectives were apparently slow to react is unclear. Media reports suggested Shepherd had been thinking about moving to Asia, and starting a new chapter of his shadow life in Thailand or Indonesia.
Instead, he gave himself up. He gave an exclusive interview to Rustaveli-2, arranged through his friend who worked at the channel. A crew filmed Shepherd – now with a beard – in conversation with his Georgian lawyers at their Tbilisi office. Shepherd expressed remorse, and said he “hoped everyone could move on with their lives”.
Shepherd and his lawyers drove to the police station and the Briton – seemingly cheerful, and wearing a scarf – presented himself at the front desk. He was taken into custody. His last nine weeks in Georgia were spent in the city jail. Shepherd lived in a relatively comfy cell, shared with two other inmates, furnished with a desk, TV and books.
He arrived in London by plane on Wednesday evening, ahead of an appearance at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
Just spoke to jack shepherd on plane - heading back to London pic.twitter.com/VshsCuz26h
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) April 10, 2019
Undoubtedly, his time on the run added to the agony of Brown’s family. His case suggests that vanishing from the grid is not as hard as it might seem.
