Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd has been jailed for a further four years after being convicted of clubbing a barman over the head with a vodka bottle just days before he fled the country.

East Anglian Daily Times: Charlotte Brown, 24, from Clacton, died after a speedboat crash on the River Thames which Jack Shepherd was driving. Picture: METROPOLITAN POLICE/PA WIRECharlotte Brown, 24, from Clacton, died after a speedboat crash on the River Thames which Jack Shepherd was driving. Picture: METROPOLITAN POLICE/PA WIRE (Image: Archant)

Shepherd, an IT consultant, was jailed for six years in April for the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown, 24, from Clacton.

Ms Brown died after the pair were thrown from Shepherd's speedboat while speeding down the Thames in London in December 2015.

His boat was later found to have a series of defects.

Shepherd went on the run and was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in his absence but was later extradited from Georgia and flown back to the UK.

Shepherd has now been sentenced to a further four years in jail after he attacked former soldier David Beech on March 16 last year at the White Hart Hotel in Moretonhampstead.

The court heard Shepherd and a friend had been drinking all day when they entered the hotel and that Mr Beech had refused service because they were too drunk.

Shepherd then assaulted Mr Beech, striking the Afghanistan veteran so hard in the face with a bottle of vodka he thought he had been hit with a baseball bat.

Stephen Vullo QC, defending, said: "Up until the end of 2015 his life was going as planned. He was a successful IT consultant earning £150,000 with his own houseboat on the Thames.

"No one, not at least himself, can have predicted the nature and degree of his self-destruction that has brought him to this point."

Mr Vullo read to the court a letter Shepherd had written in which he "apologised unreservedly" for attacking Mr Beech.

"When I saw the CCTV of the attack I felt physically sick. It fills me with great regret," he said.

"Until that evening I have never been a violent person. I can only attribute this shocking change in character in me to too much alcohol."

Shepherd said he could have "snapped under the strain" of facing trial over Ms Brown's death and had "failed to cope" with the break-up of his marriage.

Explaining why he went on the run, he said he had only brought "suffering" to Mr Beech and Ms Brown's family and had considered ending his life.

Shepherdis appealing against his manslaughter conviction and Court of Appeal judges will hear that application on June 13.