Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd is planning his wedding from jail – despite still being married.
He was locked up over Charlotte Brown’s death. Georgian lover Maiko Tchanturidze said: “I’ll wait for him.”
The wannabe bride today reveals she lived with him for four months before he confessed his past.
Maiko, 25, was wooed by the fugitive Brit after they met at a park but he only blurted out the truth as police closed in.
Shepherd was hiding out in Tbilisi, Georgia, when he met Maiko and now plans to wed her – but needs a divorce first. Maiko previously claimed she and Shepherd were just friends.
But today she proudly reveals she is his girlfriend and tells how:
- Shepherd wooed her by pretending to jog in the park where she walked her dog.
- They embarked on a 19-month romance, while he kept Charlotte’s death and the fact he was on the run a secret.
- He sends her daily love letters from prison – and marriage and starting a family is on the cards.
Maiko is still living in the Georgian capital where she met callous Shepherd, 31, while he spent 10 months on the run.
She hopes to be with him in the UK when he is freed on licence, before starting a new life together in Georgia.
Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Mirror, Maiko says: “I am going to wait for him. I just hope he will be released as soon as possible.
“We have spoken about marriage and having children. We will see what the future will bring for us.
“Hopefully he will be released halfway through the sentence or earlier, fingers crossed. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to leave the country and may have to serve the second half of his sentence in the UK, so then I will have to move there.
“Most likely we will move to Georgia after that. We have plans of a decent future together.”
Pictures show the loved-up couple in Georgia – Shepherd appearing not to have a care in the world, despite the lifelong trauma Charlotte’s family will endure.
One image shows him kissing her at what appears to be a graduation ceremony.
Shepherd has been moved from South London prison HMP Belmarsh, where he was repeatedly threatened by lags. He is now in his own cell in an undisclosed jail.
Maiko adds: “He has many photos of me. We keep in touch via letters. We write each other almost every day. I email, they print it and get it to Jack. He replies with actual letters.
“He loves reading and he attends art class and spends some time in the gym. He takes part in a writing class as well.
“He writes short stories and he paints the view from the prison, which isn’t great, and streets from Tbilisi. I would like it if he paints portraits of me too.”
Shepherd, a married dad of one, fled to Georgia last year while facing trial for killing internet date Charlotte, 24. She drowned when their boat flipped over on the River Thames.
Web developer Shepherd was jailed for six years in his absence.
That was in June 2018 – by which time the callous womaniser had separated from his wife and had his eyes on Maiko.
He was a freelance web designer in a £168-a-month flat in the poor Saburtalo quarter of Tbilisi when they met.
Maiko says: “I met Jack in a park where I used to walk my bichon frise every day. Our conversation started out like ‘How cute is your dog’. Just ordinary conversation between strangers.
"He seemed interesting, educated and a nice guy to talk with. He wasn’t great at running – I think he was just working out there because of me. We’d see each other quite often. We liked each other.”
Maiko says Shepherd, who was using the false name Jack Grant, told her he had lived in the US, Spain and Italy. She adds: “He said he knew about Georgia from friends and was curious to see what it was like.
“I knew he had a wife, but they were going to divorce, and it’s been maybe two years they are not together. And I knew, of course, he had a child and many things about his job – and almost everything about his life. We had an emotional connection.
“It quickly became a romantic relationship and we moved in together in September 2018.
“I was translating books and he was helping. We’d go out with our friends, walk in parks and that was all really.”
Unbeknown to Maiko, the net was closing in on Shepherd.
She says he became increasingly depressed before finally telling her the truth in a video call just two days before he surrendered to Tbilisi police in January 2019.
Maiko recalls: “It was emotional. We both cried and he apologised for not telling me sooner and for bringing me trouble. I was shocked and very angry. It was the biggest trauma in my life.
“But after he explained everything and after I read about the court case and everything written about him, I honestly believe it was a tragic accident. Of course it is terrible that Charlotte died, but it was an accident.”
Maiko, who works in customer service for a German company when not doing TV work, is desperate to visit Shepherd in jail.
Her first visa application was rejected and she is about to reapply.
She says: “Hopefully I will see Jack. He is not feeling great. I am worried about him. Prison is not where he wants to spend his life, but he is not complaining. We both are suffering.”
