‘Now we’ll never get closure’ – Suzy Lamplugh’s brother after prime suspect dies

The brother of Suzy Lamplugh has said his family will never get closure after the prime suspect in his sister’s murder case died in prison.

John Cannan died in custody on Wednesday at the age of 70, the Prison Service said.

He was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in 1989 for the rape and murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks, with a further sexual offence, an attempted kidnapping and two offences of abduction with intent to engage in unlawful sexual intercourse.

In 2002 he was named as the prime suspect in the 1986 disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh, which he denied.

Ms Lamplugh’s brother Richard Lamplugh, 64, said he was “not mourning John Cannan” but had been left instead mourning the “loss of him ever giving us closure”.

He told The Telegraph: “I never wanted to meet the man, although my parents did meet with him.

“As far as I’m concerned, he was a nasty bit of work and he manipulated people. He knew that information is power and he wanted to hold on to it. I wasn’t going to get down on bended knee and beg him for information.”

Ms Lamplugh was declared dead, presumed murdered, after going missing in July 1986 at the age of 25.

She left her west London offices to meet a mystery client known only as “Mr Kipper” for a flat viewing and was never seen again.

Her car, a white Ford Fiesta, was found abandoned in Stevenage Road, Fulham, west London, and police believe she was abducted and murdered.

Cannan was questioned in prison in connection with the incident. No charges were brought.

We would dearly love to be able to find Suzy’s body and to scatter her ashes where my parents’ ashes are scattered

In 2018, police carried out excavations at Cannan’s mother’s former home in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, but nothing was found.

Mr Lamplugh, who was 26 and working at a fish farm in Hertfordshire at the time his sister disappeared, said: “We have never been able to properly grieve for Suzy.

“It’s really sad that my folks weren’t around to even find out where he buried her. We would dearly love to be able to find Suzy’s body and to scatter her ashes where my parents’ ashes are scattered.”

In October last year the parole board found 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.

It was told that 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.

We’ve never been able to properly grieve for Suzy because in the days and weeks afterwards, we kept trying to stay positive and hopeful

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

Mr Lamplugh said he held hope Cannan may have left some information for the family in a book he was believed to be writing, adding: “The police think he did it, so I will accept that. It’s fait accompli.”

He also said he thinks of “Suze” all the time, but especially on May 3, her birthday, and when cases similar to Suzy’s hit the headlines, such as the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021.

He said: “I feel very sad for anyone who’s lost their loved ones, but of course you find yourself thinking ‘Well, at least they found the body’.

“We’ve never been able to properly grieve for Suzy because in the days and weeks afterwards, we kept trying to stay positive and hopeful.

“We wanted to believe she had lost her memory or something like that. Then when months went by and she had missed so many birthdays and Christmas and so on, we had to be realistic. But by that point we were quite far away from what had happened.”

Suzy always said that ‘life is there for the living’ and that’s a motto I want us all to live by

The father-of-two, who lives in Aberdeenshire with his wife Christine, said the loss of his sister has made him worry about his own daughters, aged 21 and 17.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a helicopter parent, but of course I’m aware of the dangers,” he said.

“But I’d never want my daughters to feel like they had this hanging over them.

“My eldest daughter is living in London now and I do worry about her, but I was brought up in a city and I loved it.

“They have to live their lives.

“Suzy always said that ‘life is there for the living’ and that’s a motto I want us all to live by.”