Suzy Lamplugh murder suspect dies in prison

John Cannan was jailed in 1989

A man convicted of killing a woman and suspected of murdering missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh has died in prison.

John Cannan, 70, originally from Birmingham, was jailed in 1989 for the abduction and murder of newlywed Shirley Banks from Bristol.

He was later implicated in the murder of 25-year-old Ms Lamplugh, from London, who disappeared in 1986. Her body has never been found.

Mrs Banks' family said in a statement: "Not a day goes by where we don't remember her or imagine what her life could have been like."

Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh went missing after meeting a client thought to be Cannan

The Prison Service confirmed Cannan's death at HMP Full Sutton and added: "As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate."

Ms Lamplugh disappeared after going to meet a client in Fulham on 28 July 1986. He was known only as "Mr Kipper" and was never traced.

According to reports, Cannan was nicknamed Kipper during an earlier prison sentence.

He also bore a resemblance to an e-fit of a man with whom Ms Lamplugh was seen talking on the day she went missing - thought to be the mysterious Mr Kipper.

A search of the back garden of a house once owned by the mother of prime suspect Cannan in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, was conducted in 2018.

Shirley Banks was murdered by Cannan and her body was dumped in Somerset

Owner Phillip Carey bought the home in Shipton Road from the mother of Cannan.

Two sites in Worcestershire - a former Army barracks and a field outside the village of Drakes Broughton - and a woodland in the Quantock Hills, Somerset, have also been searched in the hunt for Ms Lamplugh's body.

In 1989, Cannan was jailed for life for the abduction and murder of Shirley Banks, a factory manager from Clifton, and two further rapes.

He was arrested 11 days later in Birmingham, where some of Mrs Banks' possessions were found.

Her body was later discovered in a stream on the Quantock Hills in Somerset.

However, Cannan always denied murdering Ms Lamplugh.

'Beautiful person'

A statement from Mrs Banks' family said: "Shirley was a beautiful person. She was kind, friendly, thoughtful, intelligent and funny.

"There were so many wonderful qualities of Shirley that we have missed so much over the last 37 years. She had many friends and many people who loved her.

"Not a day goes by where we don't remember her or imagine what her life could have been like."

In October 2023, the parole board ruled Cannan was too dangerous to release.

The panel heard that Cannan still insisted that he was innocent and had not engaged in any accredited programmes to address the risk of reoffending while in jail.

At the time of his crimes, Cannan thought he was entitled to sex whenever he wanted it, preferred it to include violence and wanted power and control over women, the panel heard.

He was a category A prisoner, those who pose the highest risk to the public.