An international search is under way to find the man who killed a woman in a speedboat crash on the river Thames.
Jack Shepherd, 30, went into hiding three days before his manslaughter trial for the death of Charlotte Brown, 24, of whose killing he was convicted this week.
On Friday he was sentenced to six years in jail for manslaughter by gross negligence after he took Brown on a date in his faulty Fletcher Arrowflyte speedboat, which capsized at speed, killing her.
Despite not attending the trial, it emerged Shepherd had been receiving daily updates from his legal team and had been issuing instructions to them by phone.
Brown’s family have since called him a coward and, before sentencing, pleaded with Shepherd to hand himself in to authorities.
A warrant has been issued for Shepherd, who lives in Paddington in London and who had attended three previous court hearings. Police said they were pursuing international lines of inquiry alongside leads in the UK.
DS Christopher Davies of the Metropolitan police told the BBC: “We have to be open-minded to where he could be and that obviously could include that he could be out the country. We have to follow up a number of leads, we have contacted a number of agencies, including the National Crime Agency, and we are open to worldwide inquiries.
“We know for a fact that he has travelled internationally in the last year and so we have to follow that lead and follow that trail and try to establish where he could be.”
Before Shepherd was sentenced, a statement by the victim’s sister, Katie Brown, on behalf of her relatives read: “Charlie died because she thought she would be safe taking a journey on Jack Shepherd’s speedboat – a speedboat that we know was unsafe and that he bought with the sole purpose of seducing young women and one he had used recklessly many times before.
“During the trial, in his absence, with his whereabouts unknown to both the court and police, Jack Shepherd was afforded more rights than Charlie.”
During the trial, the court heard Shepherd had entertained a number of women on his speedboat before Brown, having bought it with the intention to “pull”.
The jury heard that there were a number of defects with the boat, including a disconnected kill cord, faulty steering and badly placed life jackets.
The boat capsized near Wandsworth bridge when it struck a submerged log on 8 December. Both Shepherd and Brown were thrown into the water. Brown was unresponsive when she was pulled from the river and was later pronounced dead.
Police have asked anybody with information about Shepherd’s whereabouts to call police on 101, or 999 in the event of an immediate sighting.
