John Cannan

John David Guise Cannan (20 February 1954 – 6 November 2024), also known under the alias John Peterson, was a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in July 1988 and given three life sentences for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in October 1987, the attempted kidnapping of Julia Holman on the previous night, the rape of a woman in Reading, Berkshire, in 1986, the rape of his girlfriend in December 1980, and several other abductions, attempted abductions and sexual offences.

Cannan was also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Fulham estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, who had an appointment on 28 July 1986 to meet a man calling himself "Mr. Kipper" and has not been seen since. In November 2002, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence to charge Cannan with Lamplugh's abduction and presumed murder. That month the Metropolitan Police held a press conference at which, in a rare move, officers publicly named Cannan as the man they believed murdered Lamplugh. Cannan said he knew who killed Lamplugh and stated that this person was the same person responsible for the murder of Banks, of which he himself was convicted. DNA evidence showed Lamplugh had previously been in a car Cannan used at the time of her disappearance.

In September 2023 Cannan became eligible for parole, which was refused the following month. Cannan died in Full Sutton Prison on 6 November 2024, at the age of 70, from natural causes.

Early life John Cannan was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, on 20 February 1954 to father Cyril Cannan, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and mother Sheila Cannan, an engineer. Cannan came from a middle-class family and was first sent by his parents to Keyse private school for boys at the age of 4. He attended public school until the age of 15.

Cannan claimed that when he was 7 and 8 he was sexually abused by a teacher, being forced to drop his trousers and touch the abuser while being indecently assaulted himself; he continued to be abused by the teacher for months. These alleged events had a lasting effect on Cannan, who felt deeply ashamed by them, and he developed a stammer from being nervous in the school environment.

At the age of 9 Cannan was removed from school and sought medical help for his anxiety. He later claimed that the sexual abuse left him struggling with feelings of humiliation and shame, which in turn led him to express much anger and resentment. Cannan also had a difficult relationship with his father, "who was quick to criticise and had an unpredictable temper." Cannan was in the merchant navy for three months at age 17, then began working as a car salesman in his father's company.

Cannan married June Vale in May 1978, seven years after they had become engaged. Vale would prove to be his one and only steady girlfriend, although he claimed that he was hassled into marrying her. Vale soon gave birth to a daughter, whom Cannan did not want. Major's attempt to leave their relationship triggered a violent reaction from Cannan, who turned up at her house on New Year's Eve with a bottle of wine and, unbeknownst to her, a firearm. Cannan attempted suicide in September by overdosing on paracetamol tablets.

Police stated that Cannan's modus operandi was to pretend to be a West Country businessman. He would ply women with chocolates and flowers, then attack when the women rejected him. Only ten weeks after his release from prison, giving the alibi that he was in Sutton Coldfield at the time of the attack. Forensic evidence was not strong enough to charge Cannan; an early DNA profile test was inconclusive.

In September 1987, Cannan signed up for a video-dating agency, giving the fake name of "John Peterson". Berry and Odell maintain that his video-dating advert was not shown to other daters due to concerns surrounding his odd behaviour. On 7 October 1987, Cannan tried to abduct thirty-year-old Bristol businesswoman Julia Holman from a car park, but she fought him off and later identified him as her attacker. while on a shopping trip to Broadmead. Banks's husband searched for her in bars when she failed to return home, as they had agreed to meet for a drink; when he rang her work the next morning he was told she had phoned in sick with an upset stomach fifteen minutes earlier. When she again failed to return home he called police. was arrested on 29 October in Leamington Spa for an assault at knifepoint on an assistant at a Regent Street dress shop. Police were sceptical but believed that it was possible she had heard and seen something in the woods.

Discovery of Banks's body

Banks's naked, decomposed body was found in a stream on 3 April 1988, six months after her disappearance, around from Bristol at a site named Dead Woman's Ditch, which is part of an Iron Age encampment at Dowsborough in the Quantock Hills. In the dark-red mud police also found gold jewellery and buttons from a dress Banks had bought.

Trial

Cannan was questioned by police in 1989 and 1990 regarding the disappearance of twenty-five-year-old Susannah "Suzy" Jane Lamplugh on 28 July 1986. In August 1991 he wrote a letter to the Sutton News newspaper denying any part in her disappearance. In November 2002, in a rare move, officers of the Metropolitan Police stated publicly their belief that Cannan was responsible for Lamplugh's murder, Cannan's solicitor complained about a lack of presumption of innocence and that the prison service had withheld letters Cannan had tried to send to national newspapers regarding the allegations.

That same month, Mark Dennis, a senior Treasury counsel, decided that there was insufficient evidence to charge Cannan over Lamplugh's disappearance. In July 1993, The Independent argued that the judge's sentencing statement, that Cannan should remain in prison for the rest of his natural life, removed any incentive for him to confess post-conviction.

Evidence In November 2002, investigators stated that Cannan should have been a suspect much earlier in the Lamplugh investigation: police in 1986 should have checked for recently released sex offenders, and should have followed up information given by Lamplugh's parents about a man from Bristol. Cannan was released from his prison hostel three days before Lamplugh disappeared. His colleagues said he often went to wine bars in Fulham, where Lamplugh worked. Cannan resembles a photofit of a man seen with Lamplugh the day she disappeared. A later girlfriend of Cannan said he had "a strong interest" in the case, and police believe Lamplugh may have been in a relationship with Cannan. that he had said Lamplugh's body was buried at Norton Barracks, although she later retracted the assertion.

In February 2001, the Metropolitan Police searched the barracks site again. In April 2001, a cellmate of Cannan said that Lamplugh was buried under the patio of Cannan's mother's house in Sutton Coldfield. In October 2018, police officers returned to the house and dug up the garden. After two weeks of searching the garden and an area under a garage, investigators confirmed that no evidence had been recovered.

In August 2010, police searched a field from the site in Worcestershire after a witness remembered seeing a mound of earth there in 1986 when he was a teenager. Investigators used ground-penetrating radar, and trenches were dug by the side of the road between Pershore and Drakes Broughton. At the same time, they also searched woodland in the Quantock Hills, where Banks's body was found.

In 2019, police investigated an eyewitness report from 1986 of a man resembling Cannan pushing a suitcase into Brentford Canal by Gallows Bridge. However, no further dredging took place as records showed it had been dredged for unrelated reasons in 2014 and was drained regularly every five years.

Prison life Cannan was a Category A offender at Full Sutton Prison in York, continually protesting his innocence. An anonymous relative of Cannan's also stated a belief that he would confess when his mother died. Cannan and his mother remained close after his conviction and she continued to visit him every week.

In August 2016 Cannan wrote a letter to prisoners' newspaper Inside Time saying that prisoners should be given the vote. In August 2017 he sent another letter to the newspaper from prison, describing how he had written to Secretary of State for Justice David Lidington asking him to stop the implementation of a smoking ban in all English prisons. He said that his request should be granted "to allow fresh ideas, arguments and evidence from staff and inmates to be placed before him for his consideration" and added "I believe a delay would permit a wiser and more thoughtful consideration of its rationale." In June 2022 it was reported that Cannan was on his deathbed and receiving palliative care.

In September 2023 Cannan faced a parole hearing after serving his minimum term of thirty-three years and 214 days. On 9 October 2023 the parole board refused to release him and refused to move him from his current Category A prison to open conditions, which would have seen him downgraded to a Category D facility.

Legal action In July 1989 Cannan failed to persuade the High Court to stop the BBC from broadcasting a Crimewatch UK documentary on the investigation into the murder of Banks. A case he took to the High Court in January 2003, claiming that his right to "free and unimpeded" legal advice was being restricted, failed. In June 2009 he lodged another case at the High Court for alleged human rights breaches: he claimed that his ineligibility for a sexual-offences treatment programme, owing to his continued claim of innocence, was illegal. He appealed for his thirty-five-year minimum tariff to be reduced but Mr Justice Coulson ruled against it in June 2008 because his crimes involved "a significant degree of planning and premeditation" and there were "no real mitigating factors at all."

Death Cannan died in Full Sutton Prison on 6 November 2024 at the age of 70. His death was confirmed by the Prison Service, which also said: "As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate." At a coroner's inquest, opened on 15 November 2024, it was stated that Cannan's death was from natural causes, specifically a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. A date for a full inquest was yet to be set.