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Experts Reveal Signs That Speedboat Killer Jack Shepherd 'Faked' Remorse To Hide Guilt

Experts Reveal Signs That Speedboat Killer Jack Shepherd 'Faked' Remorse To Hide Guilt

Experts say Shepherd 'faked' sadness to distance himself from guilt, after being involved in a boat crash that killed date Charlotte Brown

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Experts have spoken of speedboat killer Jack Shepherd's crocodile tears during a police interview, saying they believe he 'faked' sadness and remorse to distance himself from guilt after a crash he was involved in killed 24-year-old Charlotte Brown.

On 8 December 2015, Shepherd had been on a date with Brown, having taken her to a posh London restaurant before inviting her back to his houseboat.

Following the night of heavy drinking, he took her out on the Thames on his poorly-maintained speedboat, driving at more than twice the speed limit before they were both thrown from the vessel when it hit an underwater obstacle and capsized.

While Shepherd was able to survive by clinging on to the boat's hull, Brown sadly died.

Shepherd was later charged with manslaughter due to negligence and sentenced to six years in prison.

He initially fled the country to Tbilisi in Georgia before he was sentenced - only handing himself in ten months later to be extradited to the UK in April 2019.

Alamy

On top of the six-year sentence for Brown's death, he was also handed a four-year sentence for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, after CCTV footage emerged of him attacking a barman with a vodka bottle in 2018.

In a new episode of documentary series Faking It, experts in body language, linguistics and forensic psychology analyse Shepherd's police interview tapes to reveal the tell-tale signs of his deception, which would distance him from the blame for causing Brown's death - having originally claimed she had been driving at the time of the incident.

discovery+

Speaking about an interview that took place the day after the crash, body language expert Cliff Lansley says there are clear indicators of deception, which suggest Shepherd was faking remorse.

He explains: "We see a tissue in his hand, and we also hear a series of dry sniffs, but the tissue is never used; his dry sniffs never develop into anything more than dry sniffs.

discovery+

"When people feel genuine sadness, we often see the eyebrows rising in the middle and the mouth going down, and we can hear the breaking of the voice.

"We hear none of that, and we see none of the signs on the face."

Dr Cliff Lansley.
discovery+

Lansley adds: "Three or four dry sniffs within about ten seconds and almost forcing the voice to sound sad, but there are no indicators that he is feeling sadness here. He is probably faking it."

Professor of Linguistics Dawn Archer also believes there were clues in Shepherd's speech that implied he was hiding the truth, noting how he remained vague about details of the crash and repeatedly claiming his memory was 'hazy' after drinking.

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Archer says: "Not remembering completely is normally around something that might be self-incriminating.

"When he remembers things, they help him out, and when he doesn't remember things, those are the things that might incriminate him."

Professor of Linguistics Dawn Archer.
discovery+

Lansley adds that Shepherd's body indicates at this moment once again his lack of confidence in his version of events.

He says: "When he makes that claim, we see both shoulders moving up maybe half a centimetre and that twitch there is what we call a gestural slip or gestural leakage.

"That is a double-sided shoulder shrug which to full extent means, 'I have no confidence in what I'm just saying.' So, my memory was hazy, but the shoulders say 'no, it wasn't."

You can watch Faking It at 10pm on Saturdays on Quest Red or stream it now on discovery+.

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Documentary