Convicted rapist and prime suspect in Suzy Lamplugh’s disappearance launching bid for freedom
THE prime suspect in Suzy Lamplugh's murder is launching a bid for freedom this year that could see him back on the streets.
Convicted rapist and murderer John Cannan has been named by police as the monster who killed Suzy, 25, in July 1986.
The serial predator, who murderer Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1987, was interviewed by police 14 years after she vanished and repeatedly maintained his innocence.
And the CPS has ruled there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him over the estate agent's disappearance.
Shockingly, Cannan managed to overturn a whole life tariff originally handed to him in 1989 when he was convicted of Shirley's murder.
He has since also attempted to appeal the mandatory 35 years minimum sentence that replaced it but his plea has been rejected.
However, the 35 years is up in October next year – with Cannan now making a bid for freedom.
He will now face a Parole Board panel this year to try and secure a move to an open prison.
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If successful, Cannan could be allowed back into the community within around 18 months.
Cannan began his sadistic rampage against women when he was just 14 after he assaulted a woman inside a phone booth.
In 1980, he choked his mistress during sex and told her he was going to kill her when she tried to leave him.
The monster committed his first rape a year later when he attacked tied up another lover and attacked her in front of her mum at knifepoint.
He was jailed for eight years in 1981 but later transferred to an open prison – meaning he was on day release at the time of Suzy's disappearance.
Cannan went on to rape a woman in Reading and later signed up for a video dating agency weeks before he attempted to kidnap a woman at gunpoint.
Textile factory manager Shirley Banks, 29, had recently married when she was snatched in Bristol in 1987.
SERIAL PREDATOR
Her naked body was found six months after her disappearance at a site named "Dead Woman's Ditch" in Somerset.
Estate agent Suzy vanished in July 1986 after going to show a client named Mr Kipper a home in Fulham, West London.
She was officially declared dead eight years later with her parents tragically dying before discovering what happened to their daughter.
Rapist, kidnapper and murderer Cannan was questioned about her disappearance and was arrested for the murder in 2000.
But the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him – with police later taking the rare step of naming him as a prime suspect in 2002.
Cannan had been released from a prison hostel just three days before Suzy disappeared and was even said to use the name "Kipper" in jail.
A criminologist also revealed DNA evidence linked Suzy to a Ford Sierra he once used with the false number plate SLP 386S.
The fiend is still protesting his innocence over Suzy's disappearance from behind bars.
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