A convicted murderer and rapist who was the prime suspect in the disappearance of the missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh has died in prison aged 70.
John Cannan was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in 1989 for the rape and murder of a Bristol factory manager, Shirley Banks, along with a further sexual offence, an attempted kidnapping and two offences of abduction with intent to engage in unlawful sexual intercourse.
In 2002, police named Cannan as the prime suspect in 25-year-old Lamplugh’s disappearance in 1986, a crime which he always denied. Lamplugh was declared dead, presumed murdered, after vanishing in one of the most notorious unsolved cases in recent criminal history.
She went missing after leaving her office to meet a mystery client, known only as Mr Kipper for a viewing in Fulham, south-west London.
Her suspected abductor was a suave, dark-haired, man clutching champagne as he climbed out of his black BMW to view the house. She was seen with the man at 1pm and minutes later they were both seen walking away from the property. Lamplugh was never seen again.
Her car, a white Ford Fiesta, was found abandoned in Stevenage Road, Fulham, with the doors unlocked, the handbrake off and her purse inside it.
Cannan was repeatedly questioned in prison in connection with the incident. It was revealed that he had been released from a hostel only days before Lamplugh went missing and he resembled a photofit of the man seen with her on the day she disappeared.
According to reports, Cannan was nicknamed Kipper during an earlier prison sentence.
No charges were brought against him, however, and nothing was found when excavations were carried out at the former home of Cannan’s mother in Sutton Coldfield in 2018.
In October of last year a parole board found Cannan was still too dangerous to release, despite serving 35 years in prison. The panel heard that Cannan continued to insist he was innocent and did not engage in any accredited programmes to address the risk of reoffending while in jail.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Full Sutton prisoner John Cannan died on 6 November. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
