John Cannan
Encyclopedia
John David Guise Cannan is a British criminal and former car salesman who was convicted in 1988 of murder
and sexual offences. He was given three life sentences
with a recommendation to never be released for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol
in October 1987, the attempted kidnapping
of Julia Holman on the previous night, and the rape of a woman in Reading the previous year. He targeted professional women. He is the only suspect in the murder of Suzy Lamplugh
, who vanished in July 1986 after going to meet a man calling himself 'Mr Kipper', but the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2002 that there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
in 1986 when Suzy Lamplugh went missing.
Police say that Cannan's modus operandi
was to pretend to be a West Country
businessman. He would ply women with chocolates and flowers, and the attacks often followed rejection. He had an affair while living in Bristol with a solicitor that ended in August 1986, and he threatened her and her family. Only ten weeks after he had been finally released from prison he raped a women at knifepoint in Reading in October 1986, an attack he was linked to by DNA from semen. He had been arrested for this offence earlier, but he gave an alibi that he was in Sutton Coldfield at the time and the forensic evidence was not strong enough to charge him. An early DNA profile was inconclusive, but the Home Office and ICI both ran the test again in 1988 and demonstrated a match. Police also used evidence from his cashpoint card to prove that he had travelled from London to Bristol that day, and Reading is on the train journey between these cities. A year later he tried to abduct 30-year-old Bristol businesswoman Julia Holman from a car park at around 6.50pm at gunpoint, but she fought him off and later identified him as her attacker. The next night he abducted Banks.
centre. Her husband Richard, then 30, searched for her in bars when she failed to return home as they had agreed to meet for a drink, and when he rang her work the next morning he was told she had just phoned in sick with an upset stomach 15 minutes earlier. When she again failed to return home he called the police. Police believe that she was held overnight in Cannan's flat, and that he then persuaded her to phone in sick to her work after pretending he was going to release her.
reconstruction in November, before Cannan's further crimes led him to be arrested.
, Bristol, was arrested on 29 October 1987 in Leamington Spa
for an assault at knife-point on an assistant at a Regent Street dress shop, Ginger. Two passers-by had chased him and called the police. He avoided them briefly, and they found a knife and bag with blood on it. The police spotted him and saw his hand was bleeding, and arrested him. They found his black BMW near the shop which contained rope and an imitation handgun, and they also found rope hidden in a toilet cistern in a garage.
The police searched his car, three weeks after Banks had gone missing, and found a tax disc for her car in a briefcase in the glove compartment. Her orange Mini Clubman was found painted blue in the lock-up garage at his block of flats. The police bailed him from the station in Warwick where he was being interviewed for the attempted robbery, and police from Bristol immediately rearrested him regarding Banks' disappearance. News media immediately linked Banks' disappearance to that of Suzy Lamplugh and published Cannan's prior criminal record. Cannan claimed he had bought the mini from a man at an auction. The police charged him with assault on 2 November, and he had no alibi for the night of Banks' disappearance.
.
Hoping that Banks was still alive, the police released Cannan's picture to the press. A 69-year-old woman came forward to say she was in traffic near Cannan's flat on 9 October 1987, and she saw smoke from a small fire in a copse. In the woods she heard a struggle and punching, and a women saying "No, no", and the man saying "I warned you what I would do" and there was a choking sound. She shouted and the man with dark curly hair saw her, ran toward her and lunged at her. The police were skeptical, but believed that it was possible that she had heard and seen something in the woods.
The police built up a composite set of Banks' fingerprints from her parents' house, her home, and her work. The left thumbprint matched a document in Cannan's flat. He acknowledged that the document came from his flat before he knew about the thumbprint. He was charged with her kidnap and murder on 23 December 1987.
, at a site named "Dead Woman’s Ditch", part of an Iron Age camp at Dowsborough
. The police found dark red mud at the site her body was left, gold jewellery, and buttons from a dress she had bought. According to pathologist Prof. Bernhard Knight she was killed by being hit repeatedly in the head with a rock. Banks' thumbprint, preserved by the ice-cold stream, also matched the thumbprint on the document.
in July 1986 and the murder of 27-year-old insurance clark Sandra Court by strangulation in Bournemouth in May 1986, but he has never been charged in either case.
at her sister's house. Court's body was found in a water-filled ditch, and she was killed with a ligature like one that Cannan used in other attacks. A pay-and-display ticket proves that Cannan was in Bournemouth the day she was killed. An anonymous letter posted to police from Southampton in 2008 claimed Court's death "was a complete and utter accident".
and that the prison service had withheld letters that Cannan had tried to send to national newspapers regarding the allegations. Mark Dennis, a senior Treasury counsel, decided in November 2002 that there was insufficient evidence to charge Cannan over her death. Lamplugh's parents considered but decided against bringing a private prosecution and civil action against Cannan. The Independent argued in 1993 that the judge's sentencing statement that Cannan should remain in jail for his natural life removed any incentive for him to confess post-conviction.
Cannan was released from his jail hostel three days before Lamplugh disappeared. He acknowledged to police in 2001 that he has no alibi for the day of Lamplugh's disappearance. Lamplugh was supposed to meet a "Mr. Kipper" when she disappeared and Cannan was known as "Kipper
" in jail due to his liking for the fish. He may have had access to a black BMW, and a dark BMW was linked to her kidnap. Lamplugh was last seen getting into a BMW with a man holding champagne, which led an ex-girlfriend of Cannan, Daphne Sargent, to say that "As soon as I heard about Suzy, I knew it was John. It had all the hallmarks - right down to the champagne." Another ex-girlfriend, Gilly Paige, who he dated from June 1987, said Cannan told her that "Suzy was absolutely gorgeous" and joked that he was Mr Kipper "because he had a BMW and was dark and handsome". The married solicitor that Cannan had an affair with in Bristol was the first person to suggest to police that he was "Mr Kipper". Cannan resembles a photofit
of a man seen with Lamplugh the day she disappeared. A woman saw a man staring at the estate agents Lamplugh worked at on the day she disappeared and later identified him as Cannan. According to former workmates, Cannan frequented bars in Fulham where Lamplugh worked — although he has denied this — and there was speculation in 2010 that they had had a relationship. Lamplugh had told friends and family that she was dating an "exciting new man" with connections to Bristol who often had to leave dates early, which may have been due to Cannan's curfew. Her flatmate said she had received unwelcome phone calls and bouquets of flowers, and Lamplugh had told her mother that she had received many calls at work and planned to end the new relationship the day she vanished. Police believe Cannan tried to seduce a woman who worked in an opticians near his work by giving her bouquets of flowers, three days before Lamplugh disappeared. Cannan wrote in letters from jail that "choclates, champagne and roses are ways of saying I love you, and never have I felt embarrassed about buying them or saying those words".
Cannan allegedly told an astrologist who visited him in jail that "a Bristol businessman" murdered Lamplugh and that "I know who killed Shirley, Suzy and another girl." Police say that cellmates have told of confessions where Cannan said that the police will never find her body and that at least one other body may be buried with her; his former girlfriend Paige said that he told her the best way to hide a body was burying it in concrete on a building site.
A criminologist who had corresponded with Cannan said in 2010 that DNA evidence linked Lamplugh to a Ford Sierra
once used by Cannan that was recovered in 2000. It had the false numberplate SLP 386, which might relate to her initials and year of disappearance. The car was recovered from a second-hand dealership in North London, where it had been parked for years. Police said in 2001 that the number plate SLP 386S had been placed on Banks' Mini by Cannan and that 386 might be a grid reference as the site Banks' body was found is near Northing line 386 and Norton Manor barracks is near 3° 08' 06" West.
They searched a field three miles from the site in Worcestershire in August 2010, after a witness remembered seeing a mound of earth there in 1986 when he was a teenager. The police used ground-penetrating radar, and trenches were dug by the side of the road between Pershore
and Drakes Broughton
, Worcestershire. At the same time they also searched woodland in the Quantock Hills where Shirley Banks' body was found.
A cellmate of Cannan said she was buried under the patio of Cannan's mother's house in Sutton Coldfield
.
, who disappeared in 1996, was suggested by police in 2009. Cannan discussed the "perfect abduction" with fellow prisoner Christopher Clark, a rapist who was jailed for life for attacking another woman a month after being interviewed over Hall's disappearance. Cannan was said to want a "murder by proxy" committed similar to that of Banks' murder; Hall's murder has similarities to Banks' murder as both were attractive, young, blonde, professional women who died of head injuries.
degree while in jail. His minimum tariff is 35 years, and he will only be released if the Parole Board rules that he is no longer a serious danger to the public.
He appealed for his 35-year minimum tariff to be reduced, but the judge Mr Justice Coulson ruled against this in June 2008 because his crimes involved "a significant degree of planning and premeditation" and there were "no real mitigating factors at all".
family and attended public school
until the age of 15. He was originally from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. In 1978 he married and had a daughter. He claimed to have had 100 one-night stands, and was said to be charming. When on day release in 1986 he worked at Superhire, a prop hire company in Acton. He was passionate about motor racing.
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
and sexual offences. He was given three life sentences
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
with a recommendation to never be released for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in October 1987, the attempted kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
of Julia Holman on the previous night, and the rape of a woman in Reading the previous year. He targeted professional women. He is the only suspect in the murder of Suzy Lamplugh
Suzy Lamplugh
Susannah "Suzy" Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, South West London, England. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994. The last clue of her whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she referred...
, who vanished in July 1986 after going to meet a man calling himself 'Mr Kipper', but the Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2002 that there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
Sexual offences
Cannan indecently assaulted a woman in a phone box in 1968 when he was 14 and was placed on probation. He sexually assaulted his girlfriend Daphne Sargent in December 1980, after she left him. He robbed a petrol station at knifepoint in February 1981, and then in March of that year he robbed a knitwear shop at knifepoint, tied up the assistant's mother with tights, and raped the shop assistant after threatening to stab her baby. He served five years of an eight year sentence for rape after being convicted in June 1981. A series of rapes across the West Midlands called the "House for Sale" rapes occurred from 1979 to 1981 and stopped when he was jailed. He was on day release from a hostel at Wormwood ScrubsWormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha , and one of the largest areas of common land in London...
in 1986 when Suzy Lamplugh went missing.
Police say that Cannan's modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
was to pretend to be a West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
businessman. He would ply women with chocolates and flowers, and the attacks often followed rejection. He had an affair while living in Bristol with a solicitor that ended in August 1986, and he threatened her and her family. Only ten weeks after he had been finally released from prison he raped a women at knifepoint in Reading in October 1986, an attack he was linked to by DNA from semen. He had been arrested for this offence earlier, but he gave an alibi that he was in Sutton Coldfield at the time and the forensic evidence was not strong enough to charge him. An early DNA profile was inconclusive, but the Home Office and ICI both ran the test again in 1988 and demonstrated a match. Police also used evidence from his cashpoint card to prove that he had travelled from London to Bristol that day, and Reading is on the train journey between these cities. A year later he tried to abduct 30-year-old Bristol businesswoman Julia Holman from a car park at around 6.50pm at gunpoint, but she fought him off and later identified him as her attacker. The next night he abducted Banks.
Disappearance
Banks, who was a newly married 29-year-old textiles factory manager from Clifton, was abducted on the evening of 8 October 1987 sometime after 7.40pm while out on a shopping trip to the BroadmeadBroadmead
Broadmead is a street in the central area of Bristol, England, which has given its name to the principal shopping district of the city.- History :The name of the street was first recorded in 1383 as Brodemede...
centre. Her husband Richard, then 30, searched for her in bars when she failed to return home as they had agreed to meet for a drink, and when he rang her work the next morning he was told she had just phoned in sick with an upset stomach 15 minutes earlier. When she again failed to return home he called the police. Police believe that she was held overnight in Cannan's flat, and that he then persuaded her to phone in sick to her work after pretending he was going to release her.
Investigation
150 officers from five police forces spent around 140,000 man hours on the case. The police put out television appeals, and searched Bristol Docks for her car. They considered that the telephone call to her work could mean she had left voluntarily, and also considered whether her husband Richard could be a suspect; he was quickly eliminated.The police had planned to first link the attempted abduction of Julia Holman the previous night on a CrimewatchCrimewatch
Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One...
reconstruction in November, before Cannan's further crimes led him to be arrested.
Arrest of Cannan
Cannan, then living at Foye House, Leigh WoodsLeigh Woods
Leigh Woods is a 2 square kilometre area of woodland on the south-west side of the Avon Gorge, opposite the English city of Bristol and north of the Ashton Court estate. It has been designated as a National Nature Reserve. Small mountain biking circuits are present in the woods and the area is a...
, Bristol, was arrested on 29 October 1987 in Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...
for an assault at knife-point on an assistant at a Regent Street dress shop, Ginger. Two passers-by had chased him and called the police. He avoided them briefly, and they found a knife and bag with blood on it. The police spotted him and saw his hand was bleeding, and arrested him. They found his black BMW near the shop which contained rope and an imitation handgun, and they also found rope hidden in a toilet cistern in a garage.
Link to Banks
Witnesses
A taxi driver came forward to say that a woman had called a taxi to Cannan's flat at about 2pm on the day after Banks disappeared, but Cannan told him nobody had called one. At about 2.30pm he borrowed a vacuum cleaner from a neighbour, and was seen cleaning his car. Cannan's movements could not be accounted for between about 3pm and 7pm. Police brought in Julia Holman, who he had tried to abduct, and she immediately identified him in the line upPolice lineup
A police lineup or identity parade is a process by which a crime victim or witness's putative identification of a suspect is confirmed to a level that can count as evidence at trial....
.
Hoping that Banks was still alive, the police released Cannan's picture to the press. A 69-year-old woman came forward to say she was in traffic near Cannan's flat on 9 October 1987, and she saw smoke from a small fire in a copse. In the woods she heard a struggle and punching, and a women saying "No, no", and the man saying "I warned you what I would do" and there was a choking sound. She shouted and the man with dark curly hair saw her, ran toward her and lunged at her. The police were skeptical, but believed that it was possible that she had heard and seen something in the woods.
Forensics
Police found a cleaning ticket for a shop in Sutton Coldfield, and found that Cannan had dropped off a raincoat with red marks on it in late October. He claimed the marks were due to red mud from making love in a park; police found the marks were bloodstains that could have been from the same blood group as Banks.The police built up a composite set of Banks' fingerprints from her parents' house, her home, and her work. The left thumbprint matched a document in Cannan's flat. He acknowledged that the document came from his flat before he knew about the thumbprint. He was charged with her kidnap and murder on 23 December 1987.
Discovery of her body
Banks' naked decomposed body was found in a stream by a woman collecting moss six months later on Easter Sunday (3 April 1988) in the Quantock hillsQuantock Hills
The Quantock Hills is a range of hills west of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. The Quantock Hills were England’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty being designated in 1956 and consists of large amounts of heathland, oak woodlands, ancient parklands and agricultural land.The hills run from...
, at a site named "Dead Woman’s Ditch", part of an Iron Age camp at Dowsborough
Dowsborough
Dowsborough Camp is an Iron Age hill fort on the Quantock Hills near Nether Stowey in Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument .-Background:...
. The police found dark red mud at the site her body was left, gold jewellery, and buttons from a dress she had bought. According to pathologist Prof. Bernhard Knight she was killed by being hit repeatedly in the head with a rock. Banks' thumbprint, preserved by the ice-cold stream, also matched the thumbprint on the document.
Trial
The trial lasted three weeks. The jury reached a guilty verdict on the charges after ten hours on 28 April 1989. Cannan was jailed for life in April 1989 by Mr Justice Drake at Exeter Crown Court for the murder of Banks and attacks on two other women. Drake praised the investigation lead by Detective Chief Inspector Brian Saunders.Suspected cases
He was a person of interest in the disappearance of 25-year-old estate agent Suzy LamplughSuzy Lamplugh
Susannah "Suzy" Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, South West London, England. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994. The last clue of her whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she referred...
in July 1986 and the murder of 27-year-old insurance clark Sandra Court by strangulation in Bournemouth in May 1986, but he has never been charged in either case.
Murder of Sandra Court
Police interviewed Cannan at a police station in York in November 2001 over the 1986 murder of Sandra Court. Court was last seen by a taxi driver who dropped her in Throop, DorsetThroop, Dorset
-Geography and Administration:Although within the historic county boundaries of Hampshire, at the time of the 1974 local government re-organization it was considered desirable that the whole of what is now called the South East Dorset conurbation, which includes Bournemouth and Poole, should be...
at her sister's house. Court's body was found in a water-filled ditch, and she was killed with a ligature like one that Cannan used in other attacks. A pay-and-display ticket proves that Cannan was in Bournemouth the day she was killed. An anonymous letter posted to police from Southampton in 2008 claimed Court's death "was a complete and utter accident".
Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh
Cannan was questioned by police regarding the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh in 1989 and 1990. He wrote a letter to the local paper Sutton News in August 1991 denying any part in her disappearance. She was declared officially dead in 1994. He was arrested for her murder and questioned in December 2000, but he was not charged. Detectives said publicly in November 2002 that they believe he killed Lamplugh, and confirmed this in 2006 when arguing against any reduction in his tariff. Cannan complained via his solicitors about the police publicly naming him, saying he was "devastated and distressed", and he again denied killing Lamplugh. His solicitor complained about a lack of presumption of innocencePresumption of innocence
The presumption of innocence, sometimes referred to by the Latin expression Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, is the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many...
and that the prison service had withheld letters that Cannan had tried to send to national newspapers regarding the allegations. Mark Dennis, a senior Treasury counsel, decided in November 2002 that there was insufficient evidence to charge Cannan over her death. Lamplugh's parents considered but decided against bringing a private prosecution and civil action against Cannan. The Independent argued in 1993 that the judge's sentencing statement that Cannan should remain in jail for his natural life removed any incentive for him to confess post-conviction.
Evidence
The police said in 2002 that Cannan should have been a suspect from much earlier in the investigation: they should have checked for recently released sex offenders, and they should have followed up information given by her parents about a man from Bristol.Cannan was released from his jail hostel three days before Lamplugh disappeared. He acknowledged to police in 2001 that he has no alibi for the day of Lamplugh's disappearance. Lamplugh was supposed to meet a "Mr. Kipper" when she disappeared and Cannan was known as "Kipper
Kipper
A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom, in Japan, and in some North American regions they are often eaten for breakfast...
" in jail due to his liking for the fish. He may have had access to a black BMW, and a dark BMW was linked to her kidnap. Lamplugh was last seen getting into a BMW with a man holding champagne, which led an ex-girlfriend of Cannan, Daphne Sargent, to say that "As soon as I heard about Suzy, I knew it was John. It had all the hallmarks - right down to the champagne." Another ex-girlfriend, Gilly Paige, who he dated from June 1987, said Cannan told her that "Suzy was absolutely gorgeous" and joked that he was Mr Kipper "because he had a BMW and was dark and handsome". The married solicitor that Cannan had an affair with in Bristol was the first person to suggest to police that he was "Mr Kipper". Cannan resembles a photofit
Photofit
Photofit is a technique used by the police for building up an accurate image of someone to fit a witness' description. Photographs, rather than drawings, of individual features are used to construct an image of a suspect....
of a man seen with Lamplugh the day she disappeared. A woman saw a man staring at the estate agents Lamplugh worked at on the day she disappeared and later identified him as Cannan. According to former workmates, Cannan frequented bars in Fulham where Lamplugh worked — although he has denied this — and there was speculation in 2010 that they had had a relationship. Lamplugh had told friends and family that she was dating an "exciting new man" with connections to Bristol who often had to leave dates early, which may have been due to Cannan's curfew. Her flatmate said she had received unwelcome phone calls and bouquets of flowers, and Lamplugh had told her mother that she had received many calls at work and planned to end the new relationship the day she vanished. Police believe Cannan tried to seduce a woman who worked in an opticians near his work by giving her bouquets of flowers, three days before Lamplugh disappeared. Cannan wrote in letters from jail that "choclates, champagne and roses are ways of saying I love you, and never have I felt embarrassed about buying them or saying those words".
Cannan allegedly told an astrologist who visited him in jail that "a Bristol businessman" murdered Lamplugh and that "I know who killed Shirley, Suzy and another girl." Police say that cellmates have told of confessions where Cannan said that the police will never find her body and that at least one other body may be buried with her; his former girlfriend Paige said that he told her the best way to hide a body was burying it in concrete on a building site.
A criminologist who had corresponded with Cannan said in 2010 that DNA evidence linked Lamplugh to a Ford Sierra
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a large family car that was built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni"....
once used by Cannan that was recovered in 2000. It had the false numberplate SLP 386, which might relate to her initials and year of disappearance. The car was recovered from a second-hand dealership in North London, where it had been parked for years. Police said in 2001 that the number plate SLP 386S had been placed on Banks' Mini by Cannan and that 386 might be a grid reference as the site Banks' body was found is near Northing line 386 and Norton Manor barracks is near 3° 08' 06" West.
Possible burial sites
Cannan's ex-girlfriend Gilly Paige told police as early as 1990 that he had said Lamplugh's body was buried at Norton Barracks, though she later retracted the claim. After a letter was sent to Lamplugh's mother Diane in late 1999 claiming Suzy was buried there, a five-day search by more than 30 officers in and around the former site of the barracks in December 2000 failed to find her body. The Metropolitan police searched the barracks site again in February 2001. Police realised in April 2001 that it was possible the barracks named were actually Norton Manor Royal Marines barracks in Somerset, 8 miles from where Banks' body was found.They searched a field three miles from the site in Worcestershire in August 2010, after a witness remembered seeing a mound of earth there in 1986 when he was a teenager. The police used ground-penetrating radar, and trenches were dug by the side of the road between Pershore
Pershore
Pershore is a market town in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon. Pershore is in the Wychavon district and is part of the West Worcestershire parliamentary constituency. At the 2001 census the population was 7,304...
and Drakes Broughton
Drakes Broughton
Drakes Broughton is a village in Worcestershire, England.The village is situated on the B4084 road 2 miles north of Pershore and 7 miles south of Worcester.The village has two pubs; the Old Oak and the Plough and Harrow....
, Worcestershire. At the same time they also searched woodland in the Quantock Hills where Shirley Banks' body was found.
A cellmate of Cannan said she was buried under the patio of Cannan's mother's house in Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
.
Murder of Melanie Hall
A possible involvement in the murder of Melanie HallMelanie Hall
Melanie Hall was a British hospital clerical officer from Bradford on Avon, who went missing on 9 June 1996, following a night out at the Cadillacs nightclub in Bath...
, who disappeared in 1996, was suggested by police in 2009. Cannan discussed the "perfect abduction" with fellow prisoner Christopher Clark, a rapist who was jailed for life for attacking another woman a month after being interviewed over Hall's disappearance. Cannan was said to want a "murder by proxy" committed similar to that of Banks' murder; Hall's murder has similarities to Banks' murder as both were attractive, young, blonde, professional women who died of head injuries.
Prison life
Cannan is a Category A offender in HMP Full Sutton, York. He still protests his innocence. He has studied for an Open UniversityOpen University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
degree while in jail. His minimum tariff is 35 years, and he will only be released if the Parole Board rules that he is no longer a serious danger to the public.
Legal action
In July 1989 he failed to get the High Court to stop the BBC 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, and in June 2009 he lodged another case at the High Court for alleged human rights breaches, claiming that his ineligibility for a sexual offences treatment programme because he denied his guilt was illegal.He appealed for his 35-year minimum tariff to be reduced, but the judge Mr Justice Coulson ruled against this in June 2008 because his crimes involved "a significant degree of planning and premeditation" and there were "no real mitigating factors at all".
Personal life
Cannan came from a middle classMiddle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
family and attended public school
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
until the age of 15. He was originally from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. In 1978 he married and had a daughter. He claimed to have had 100 one-night stands, and was said to be charming. When on day release in 1986 he worked at Superhire, a prop hire company in Acton. He was passionate about motor racing.
Further reading
- Timeline of Cannan's life and background researched by Erin Waddell, Breeanne Berlin, & Ryan Mank, Department of Psychology, Radford UniversityRadford UniversityRadford University is one of Virginia's eight doctoral-degree granting public universities. Originally founded in 1910, Radford offers comprehensive curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, and graduate programs including the M.F.A., M.B.A...
.