A Samurai swordsman who terrorised his lover weeks after he was spared jail for battering his last girlfriend has been jailed. Jason Shepherd caused even further disruption at his own sentencing when he took issue with MyLondon covering his crimes.
He told the court ‘I do not want him here, writing my s*** down’ before turning to MyLondon’s court reporter and calling him a ‘curly-haired c***’ at Croydon Crown Court on Friday, February 9.
Mr Recorder Tom Nicholson Pratt ignored the protests and pressed on with the hearing, jailing a sobbing Shepherd for 32 months. The wife-beater appeared agitated throughout the hearing, shaking his head and bursting into tears as the court heard of his escalating violence against a female partner who thought she was about to die when he repeatedly strangled her in December last year.
Shepherd, of Highview Road in Sidcup, was previously jailed for two years in 2013 after he told a group of girls ‘I’ll have you, I will cut you open’ before returning to Sidcup McDonald’s wielding a Samurai sword, reports Newsshopper. At that time he had already been sent to a Young Offender’s Institution for two years after he was caught selling crack cocaine in an undercover police sting in 2011.
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After a battery offence in 2018, Shepherd tried to sort his life out but was back in court in November 2023 for two counts of battery on a female partner, including a strike to her head. He escaped with a community order but went on to beat and strangle his latest victim only a few weeks later.
‘Full-blown wallop’ to the ribs
On December 13, Shepherd sent his partner an angry voice note asking why she had missed her hospital appointment. He then turned up at her home and became enraged when it took her some time to answer the door, leading to accusations she had snuck another man outside. In fact, she had been sleeping, but she said ‘it’s like a thought manifests in his head and it builds and builds’.
That thought built into a violent outburst when he punched her in the ribs and strangled her with both hands, prosecutor Henna Baig told the court. The victim said the strangling felt ‘like a lifetime’ and she had to catch her breath. He then grabbed her face again and punched her in the ribs, which she described as a ‘full-blown wallop’.
Four days later on December 17, the previous night’s argument spilled into the morning and Shepherd hounded his victim into the bathroom. He ripped the light switch cord from the ceiling, followed her to the bedroom and strangled her with his hands, then punched her in the head whilst calling her ‘words to the effect of a whore and a tramp’, the court heard.
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Shepherd strangled her again with both hands and threw her onto the sofa and punched her. As the battering moved to the kitchen she started to feel dizzy, Ms Baig said. After strangling her ‘several times’, thug Shepherd then threatened her with a frying pan and banged her head against the back of the fridge.
The court was shown photos of the victim’s swollen face, red neck, and bruised ribs and arms, after the December 17 attack. “She said in her statement, she thought the defendant was going to kill her,” added Ms Baig.
‘Extremely ugly’
Defence counsel Dean Armstrong stressed his client had called police on himself, and then owned up to the violence. Highlighting Shepherd’s continued efforts to get mental health treatment, Mr Armstrong added: “[He has a] underlying vulnerability that manifests itself in an extremely ugly way.”
Recorder Nicholson Pratt told Shepherd the reason for his behaviour was ‘jealousy’ and he had no choice but to send him straight to prison for the protection of other females.
“It’s pretty appalling state of affairs that occurred. Your record is not great either. There’s violence on your record and in particular when you were dealt with in Lewes Crown Court in November 2023 for assaulting another partner, another domestic violence incident,” said Mr Nicholson Pratt.
Recorder Nicholson Pratt said he had a ‘duty to the public’ and ‘females in particular’ which meant ‘I can’t avoid imposing a custodial sentence’. Shepherd continued whimpering as he was handed consecutive sentences of 12 months and 20 months for the separate strangling incidents.
He was given eight months and 12 months for two more counts of ABH and a month for criminal damage, all to run concurrently. He is also banned from contacting his victim or attending her address in Sutton for five years by way of a restraining order.
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