The story of two crimes linked with John Cannan

Earlier this week it was announced that convicted murderer and rapist John Cannan had died in prison.

Aged 70, he had been serving life in prison since his sentencing in 1989 and last year was ruled too dangerous to be released.

While originally from Birmingham, he spent time living in Bristol and police said he had a record of posing as a “West Country businessman” – plying women with flowers and champagne before attacking them when rejected.

He had a long record of violent and sexually-motivated crimes and was linked with a number of cases that remain unsolved.

But Cannan is most commonly associated with the names of two victims – Shirley Banks, 29, from Bristol, who he was convicted of murdering, and Shirley Lamplugh, originally from Cheltenham but living in London at the time of her disappearance.

With renewed interest in both murders since the news of Cannan’s death, we have retraced what happened to both women nearly 40 years ago.

Shirley Banks, 29, from Clifton, had been married for a matter of weeks when she vanished suddenly on the evening of 8 October 1987.

Records showed she had used her credit card while shopping in the Broadmead area of Bristol that evening and she is believed to have made her way back to her orange Mini Clubman.

Court reports from the time describe how her husband had searched their favourite bars and pubs after she failed to return home but found no trace of her.

He called the textiles factory she managed the next morning to be told she had phoned minutes earlier to say she was unwell.

Due to this call it is believed she had been abducted and held by Cannan overnight and had possibly been told by him that she would be released safely.

Instead, the case against Cannan claimed, he had driven her to a wooded valley known as Dead Woman’s Ditch in the Quantocks, Somerset, where he murdered her.

Her body was found in a shallow stream in the area more than six months later, months after Cannan had been arrested on suspicion of her murder in December 1987.

Three weeks after Shirley disappeared a tax disc for her Mini was discovered in Cannan’s car.

The Mini itself was later discovered in his garage, having been painted blue, and investigators found her thumb print in the Leigh Woods flat in which Cannan was living at the time.

Cannan was charged with Shirley’s murder and his trial began on 5 April 1989.

He also faced eight other charges including sexual offences and attempted abduction relating to incidents involving other women.

He was jailed for life in 1989.

In October 2023 a parole board ruled Cannan was too dangerous to release with the panel hearing how he had still insisted on his innocence and had not engaged with any programmes to reduce his risk of reoffending.

A statement released by Mrs Banks’ family after news of Cannan’s death described her as a “beautiful person” adding that 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,” the statement said.

“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.”

Suzy Lamplugh, born in Cheltenham in 1961, was 25 when she vanished suddenly in the middle of her working day as an estate agent in July 1985.

She left her west London offices to meet a client identified only as “Mr Kipper” in her diary for a property viewing.

Eyewitness testimony gathered after her disappearance suggested she was seen leaving the property in Fulham with a man – presumably Mr Kipper – in her car and may have been in an argument with him.

She was never seen again. Her car, a white Ford Fiesta, was found abandoned in Stevenage Road, Fulham, and police believe she was abducted and murdered.

In 2002 police named Cannan as their prime suspect but he always denied involvement in her death.

Suzy’s body was never found and no perpetrator was ever convicted but she has been presumed murdered and was legally declared dead in 1993.

Her parents, Paul and Diana, set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in December 1986, with the aim of helping people feel safe through offering personal safety training and advice.

It is now the leading personal safety charity in the UK, with a particular focus on stalking and violence against women and girls, and has run the National Stalking Helpline since 2010.

In a statement released after news of Cannan’s death, the trust said: “We recognise that this is a difficult time for the family of Suzy Lamplugh as they process this news.

“We would like to take this opportunity to recognise the work of Suzy’s parents who set up the trust to enable individuals and organisations to be and feel safer through campaigning, education and its specialist support services for victims of stalking.

“We are indebted to their persistence, resilience and their focus on ensuring that what happened to Suzy doesn’t happen to others.”