THE family of Charlotte Brown have come face-to-face with her killer in court after he was extradited from Georgia.

Jack Shepherd admitted breaching bail and absconding, as he was brought before the Old Bailey for the first time since he ran away to avoid his trial for the manslaughter of Ms Brown.

The 31-year-old web developer, from Abergavenny, stared ahead in the dock and did not look at his victim's parents in court.

He last appeared at the Old Bailey in November 2017, when he denied manslaughter.

Ms Brown died on her first date with Shepherd in December 2015, when his speedboat crashed and capsized on the River Thames in London.

During his trial, Shepherd fled the UK. He was found guilty in his absence of Ms Brown's manslaughter and sentenced to six years in jail.

Shepherd handed himself in to police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in January this year. He touched down at Gatwick airport on Wednesday night.

Today (April 11), Shepherd appeared in the Old Bailey dock wearing a dark suit, light shirt and no tie, flanked by two guards.

Ms Brown's parents and both sisters sat to the side of the court with a clear view of Shepherd.

Judge Richard Marks QC suggested Shepherd had only handed himself in when the "net was closing in".

The court heard the defendant had travelled to Georgia in March 2018 and was in phone contact with his lawyers on May 14.

Addressing defence lawyer Andrew McGee, the judge said: "It was widely publicised your client was understood to be in Georgia, and against that background it does seem to me this is not a case of somebody who entirely off his own bat has thought better of his situation and decided to surrender – rather that this was somebody who realised the net was closing in and that was the background in which he surrendered."

Mr McGee said: "It's not a case of Mr Shepherd realising the net was closing in."

He said Shepherd was "ashamed" of failing to attend his trial and now recognised it was "cowardly".

But he said it was "not deliberately callous or cavalier" nor was it "cynical or calculated".

The lawyer, who acknowledged the "upset to the Brown family", admitted Shepherd had received daily transcripts of the evidence in his trial while he was absent.

He added his client travelled "under his own name, using his own passport".

As he returned to Britain on Wednesday night, Shepherd said he had acted on "emotion and fear" when he fled the UK and now wants to "make amends".

On Twitter, home secretary Sajid Javid thanked the Georgian authorities for their assistance, adding: "Charlotte Brown's family have endured immeasurable pain and are now one step closer to getting the justice they deserve."

Shepherd has already launched an appeal against his conviction.