SICK TRAIL OF DEPRAVITY
Public school charm masked Suzy Lamplugh’s suspected killer John Cannan’s lust for rape, murder and kidnap
CHARMER John Cannan fancied himself as a smooth-talking ladies’ man who had bedded one hundred women.
The well-spoken ex-public schoolboy persuaded a married solicitor to sleep with him and convinced other intelligent women to go on dates.
19
19
He wooed them with champagne, chocolates and roses. But silky chat and romantic gifts helped to mask a monster.
Former lovers have told of a man with a terrible rage, willing to take revenge on women who rejected his advances.
And strangers were violently attacked to satisfy the creepy car salesman’s depraved lust.
For years, jailed Cannan, 64, has been the prime suspect in the kidnap and murder of 25-year-old estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, who vanished in July 1986.
19
19
19
Homeowner Phillip Carey speaks about Suzy Lamplugh's death as police search the home he bought from suspect John Cannan's mother
Now that cops have begun digging for her body in the garden of his mum’s former home, the brute could soon add another entry to his already hideous rap sheet.
His convictions include the murder of a newlywed factory manager, the rape of a shop assistant in front of her mother and an attempted kidnapping.
19
19
19
After raping another woman at knifepoint, he coolly kissed her on the lips and said: “Take care and be good and if you can’t be good be careful’’ — as if nothing untoward had happened.
When he jailed Cannan in 1989, Mr Justice Drake told Exeter crown court: “Under that veneer of charm lies a most evil, violent, and horrible side to your character.”
It is thought Cannan could be the “Mr Kipper” Suzy went to meet before she disappeared — a man her mum said made Suzy feel “uncomfortable”.
19
19
19
He was so creepy that when he signed up for a dating agency a year after Suzy disappeared, the firm refused to put him forward to any clients. He had used a false name and boasted of having “achieved my ambitions” in terms of career and wealth.
While he presented himself as a BMW-driving yuppie, he in fact drifted in and out of work.
Police suspect Cannan funded his high-living image through crime, including robbery.
He gets a kick thinking he controls the situation from his cell
on
Cannan was born to well-off middle class parents in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, and was first educated privately before taking O-levels at a state secondary school. He even charmed his teachers into giving him biscuits.
He is said to have endured a frosty relationship with his father — an ex-RAF man. But he was very close to his mother Sheila, who is now in her 80s.
Cannan’s brother Anthony once revealed: “His life revolved around her. I don’t think he ever had a close relationship apart from with Mum. He idolised her. When he grew up I don’t think he ever had a single friend.
“Women were taken in by him, though no relationship ever lasted. Men just saw straight through him. They knew he was shallow.”
19
Timeline
- 28 JULY 1986. Estate agent Suzy is abducted and killed after going to meet client “Mr Kipper”.
- 7 OCTOBER 1986. Cannan rapes a woman after abducting her at knifepoint in Reading.
- 7 OCTOBER 1987. He tries to abduct a woman at gunpoint in Bristol.
- 8 OCTOBER 1987. He kidnaps and murders Shirley Banks in Bristol.
- 29 OCTOBER 1987. Arrested trying to rob a shop in Leamington Spa.
- 30 OCTOBER 1987. Media speculation that Suzy’s murder could be linked to Shirley’s.
- FEBRUARY 1988: Cannan quizzed for first time over Suzy’s murder.
- APRIL 1989: Cannan convicted of rape, attempted abduction, murder and attempted robbery. Given whole life tariff, later reduced to 35-year minimum tariff.
- 1999: Police begin Suzy cold case review.
- 2000: New probe by homicide team.
- JUNE 2002: File sent to CPS recommending Cannan be prosecuted for Suzy’s murder.
- NOVEMBER 2002: CPS say insufficient evidence to prosecute. Police name Cannan as prime suspect.
- JUNE 2008: He loses ap- peal on 35-year tariff.
- OCTOBER 2018: Cops begin dig at mum’s old home.
At 14, Cannan’s sinister sexual side emerged when he indecently assaulted a woman in a phone box in the Birmingham suburb of Erdington. He was sentenced to probation for a year.
After leaving school, he joined the merchant navy, but stuck with it for only three months.
At 24, it appeared he might be settling down when he married June Vale in 1978 and had his only child, Louise, with her.
But it was not long before Cannan was going out drinking and picking up other women.
One of his lovers, Daphne Sargent, initially found him “smooth-talking, attractive, well-dressed” and “impossible to resist”, before he turned violent in 1980. She changed her name to escape him, saying she was frightened by “the murderous look in his eyes” when he had attacked her in bed.
19
19
19
Daphne said: “As soon as I heard about Suzy, I knew it was John. It had all the hallmarks — right down to the champagne.”
In 1981, Cannan held up a petrol station at knifepoint and then did the same at a knitwear shop.
During the second raid he tied up the assistant’s mother and then raped the younger woman.
He got five years in jail for the rape, plus three years for robbery and was freed in 1986.
While in jail he had grown close to solicitor Annabel Rose, who had been helping his legal bid to gain access to his estranged daughter. Cannan’s wife had divorced him following his rape conviction.
He was so infatuated with married Annabel he moved to Bristol to be close to her, calling her “the biggest thing to happen in my life’’.
Yet, around this time he is said to have met Suzy — who spoke of going on a date with a man from Bristol — and also slept with professional ice skater Gillie Paige.
19
19
19
Cannan’s raging appetite for sex included prostitutes and he boasted to police that he had enjoyed “a hundred one-night stands”.
Sickeningly, he forced a woman to have sex with him after stopping to ask her for directions in Reading, Berks, in 1986.
The victim told a court of her 45-minute ordeal: “I didn’t want it to happen. He had threatened me with a knife and I feel he would have killed me.’’ He was still seeing the solicitor at this time, but once her barrister husband found out about their affair she ended their relationship.
It was at this point Annabel learned how dangerously jealous obsessed Cannan could be. He used money from his father’s will to hire a private investigator to follow her.
19
Suzy Lamplugh: New Search
Cannan’s aim was to blackmail his former lover, but this backfired because she had already confessed all to her husband. She resigned from her law firm.
Cannan left a thumb print on the private eye’s dossier, which was later used by police to prove he had been at the flat of Shirley Banks, who he claimed not to know at the time of her murder in October 1987.
The day before factory manager Shirley went missing, businesswoman Julia Holman had bravely fought off Cannan when he tried to abduct her at gunpoint from her car in Bristol.
Newlywed Shirley, 29, was taken by Cannan to his flat after going shopping in Bristol. Her naked body was found the following year by walkers in Somerset. She had been hit repeatedly on the head with a rock.
Cannan was given three life terms after a jury found him guilty in April 1989 of Shirley’s murder, the attempted kidnapping of Julia and the knifepoint rape in Reading.
'I asked if it was him'
JOHN Cannan dodged the question nearly 30 years ago when I asked him if he was the mysterious Mr Kipper, writes Andrew Parker.
He was in the dock at Exeter crown court during his 1989 trial for the murder of Shirley Banks and a series of rapes and abductions.
There was no security screen and Cannan would wink and smile at the Press bench when brought up from the cells — convinced he was going to get off.
Cops were sure he was Kipper so, during an adjournment, I asked: “So John are you Mr Kipper?”
His face froze briefly as his piercing blue eyes looked right through me — then he changed the subject.
“Look at that crack in the ceiling,” he said. “It wants filling with Artex.” With that, he swivelled round and returned to his seat.
Cannan has not shown any remorse for his crimes or helped bring closure to victims’ relatives.
Detectives had pleaded with him to help them find Shirley’s body and hoped he would aid them in the search for Suzy. whose late parents believed Cannan killed her.
In 2002, police quizzed him about the murder of insurance clerk Sandra Court, 27, in Dorset. Her body was found eight weeks before Suzy vanished. Cannan has also been linked to M5 murder victim Melanie Hall, who went missing in Bath, Somerset, in June 1996.
He was in jail at the time, but cops believe he may have planned the killing from his cell and got an accomplice to carry it out.
MOST READ IN NEWS
In 2009 a new witness said they received a letter from Cannan a fortnight before Melanie vanished, in which he talked of a woman from the Bath area who wrote to him.
Criminologist Christopher Berry-Dee, who has corresponded with him, said: “Cannan is cold and calculating. He is a control freak.
“He believes he can control the situation from his prison cell by keeping the truth to himself, that’s how he gets his kicks.”
If the latest suspicions of the police prove to be right, will Britain’s cruellest ladykiller finally crack?
- GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]