A web designer accused of killing his date in a speedboat crash admitted he had not even asked if she could swim before letting her drive “full throttle” along the river Thames, a court heard today.
Jack Shepherd, 30, is accused of being responsible for the death of 23-year-old Charlotte Brown when his boat flipped over and they were both flung into the cold waters.
They had met for a first date at The Shard in December 2015, sharing two bottles of wine before they went - champagne in hand - for a ride on Shepherd’s speedboat.
However, he admitted to the police after the fatal accident that he had failed to tell Miss Brown about life jackets on the boat, not worn a ‘kill cord’ to stop the engine in the event of a crash, and would regularly break the river’s speed limit.
Shepherd told police he had allowed Miss Brown to get into the driver’s seat when they reached a straight stretch of the river, but found himself “hanging on” to the boat because the speed they were going in the moments before the crash.
“I remember hanging on, which is not a good sign,” he said.
“It was exciting but I wasn’t totally happy because I was hanging on.”
Shepherd said he usually goes “flat out” on that stretch of the river, near to Wandsworth Bridge, and asked about the speed that Miss Brown was going, he replied: “Full throttle”.
“Neither of us were wearing life jackets although there were two in between the seats,” he said.
“She wouldn’t have known they were there and I didn’t point them out.
“I didn’t even ask if she could swim.”
Asked about the kill cord, Shepherd said he “didn’t get round to it and think about attaching it”.
“We just went down the river exceeding the speed limit but in my mind not unsafely, or so it seemed at the time.”
He added that he had “done the right thing” on previous dates by telling women about the life jackets on his boat.
Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC told the jury Shepherd used the speedboat as part of a “seduction routine” with women he met online.
He had taken Miss Brown to see the Houses of Parliament on their date, and were driving back to his Hammersmith houseboat when the crash happened.
It is believed Miss Brown, a novice boat driver, either swerved sharply to avoid hitting a wharf or the boat struck a tree trunk which was semi-submerged in the water.
Jurors heard today that Shepherd had twice been warned by the marine police in the months before the crash about safety in his boat.
A previous date had “become uncomfortable” because of the speed Shepherd was travelling, the court heard, and in September 2015 he was advised by a police officer to wear a life jacket and use the kill cord.
“None of these warnings were ever heeded,” said Mr Jafferjee.
After the crash, Miss Brown’s lifeless body was pulled from the water. Shepherd was found clinging on to the overturned boat as it drifted along the river.
Shepherd, who is absent from his trial, denies manslaughter by gross negligence.
The trial continues.
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