Jack Shepherd 'to be extradited within a fortnight'

Jack Shepherd, the speedboat killer, has abandoned his fight against extradition and could return to the UK to face justice within a week, according to reports.

The 31-year-old fugitive has been in custody in Georgia since January after handing himself into the authorities following ten months on the run.

He was convicted in his absence of the manslaughter by gross negligence of Charlotte Brown, 24, who died when his defective speedboat crashed on the Thames during a date. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

Shepherd had vowed to fight extradition, claiming his life would be in danger if he served his sentence in Britain.

But it emerged on Sunday that he would consent to return at a hearing in Tiblisi, where he is detained in a maximum security jail, due to take place this week.

A source told the Sunday Mirror: "Jack feels that as long as he gets assurances he needs over his safety, it's now time to come back home.

"He knows at the moment he's just delaying the inevitable - and lengthening his sentence by staying."

The two months he has served in custody in Georgia will not automatically be deducted from his sentence.

Richard Egan, Shepherd’s UK-based solicitor, said he had not received any updates from his Georgian legal team and so was unable to confirm the development.

He said the issue of whether or not time served in Georgia would count towards his sentence, would be subject to an application to the British court.

Shepherd faces additional jail time for absconding as well as an outstanding GBH charge relating to an incident in a Devon pub just a day or two before he left the UK, when he is alleged to have knocked a barman out with a glass bottle.

Miss Brown, from Welling in Bexley, south London, died when she was flung from his vessel in December 2015.

The pair had met online and were on their first date. They had eaten at The Shard before taking to Shepherd’s boat late at night.

Shepherd, a web designer, married a childhood friend two months after the tragedy and had a son later that year.

He was charged in September 2017 but fled the country last March. He rented a flat in Georgia, where he used the name Jack Grant in a bid to avoid detection.

His Old Bailey trial went ahead without him last July.

He finally handed himself into the authorities on January 23 amid heightened publicity as the net closed in.

Shepherd’s legal team confirmed that the prosecutor's office had submitted its extradition request to the court and said the hearing would be held this week.