00:00:05
NARRATOR: On the
8th of October 1987, 29-year-old Shirley
Banks went to a shopping
00:00:12
center in Bristol, England
to buy a new dress. She would never be
seen alive again.
00:00:18
For weeks on end, it
seemed that Shirley Banks had disappeared off
the face of the Earth.
00:00:25
NARRATOR: But Shirley
hadn't vanished. She'd been abducted and murdered
by a 33-year-old convicted
00:00:32
rapist named John Cannan. He had his mind set
on abducting a woman and assaulting her and getting
what he wanted from her.
00:00:41
And nothing was going
to stand in his way. NARRATOR: Detectives
investigating Shirley's
00:00:47
disappearance were merely
scratching the surface of Cannan's twisted past-- a sexual predator hidden beneath
a veneer of respectability.
00:00:57
WOMAN: What do you look for
in a partner, what attraction? Well, I think apart
from the physical side,
00:01:04
I think somebody who's pleasant,
who's natural, who's relaxed. Of all the murderers
I've investigated,
00:01:12
Cannan sticks out. He's a psychopath--
simple, psychopath. NARRATOR: John Canaan
was about to be
00:01:20
unmasked as one of the
"World's Most Evil Killers." [theme music] John Cannan is
something of an enigma.
00:01:50
After being arrested for
the murder of Shirley Banks in December 1987, he was charged
with a number of offenses,
00:01:57
ranging from rape to GBH. He's never spoken of
his crimes, but Cannan is suspected of killing others.
00:02:06
In 2002, he was named as
the prime suspect in one of the most infamous
unexplained disappearances
00:02:14
in British history. Suzy Lamplugh
disappeared in July 1986 and was never heard
of again, and her body
00:02:23
has never been found. So the family have
had no real closure. I read all the material that the
review team had regarding John
00:02:34
Cannan's offending profile. And the more I read
into it and the more I learned about the
Lamplugh case, it
00:02:41
became clearer and clearer to
me that the one and only suspect was John Cannan. NARRATOR: Many of
Cannan's crimes
00:02:51
were only discovered
after his arrest for an attempted
robbery in October 1987. TV producer Nick Scheierman
was working on the BBC "Crime
00:03:01
Watch" program at the
time and forensically followed Cannan's demise. There's no doubt that
this case had a particularly
00:03:10
strong effect on me. This was something that
has happened in my area. I've lived in Bristol for
years and years and years.
00:03:17
I passed that house where
he lived on a regular basis. And it's very
difficult to forget
00:03:23
those things because the crimes
were so appalling, really. If you rape someone, it's never
gonna go away for that person,
00:03:32
and it's not gonna go
away for those nearest and dearest to them. So Cannan has effectively
put life sentences
00:03:40
on a whole number
of individuals, not just his immediate victims. NARRATOR: Although convicted
of offenses against six women,
00:03:50
including the murder
of Shirley Banks, experts feel John Cannan
still has a lot to answer for.
00:03:57
I believe Cannan's committed
many, many more sexual offenses than he's ever been convicted of
or that he's even suspected of.
00:04:07
NARRATOR: The killer's
story begins in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. John David Guise Cannan was born
on the 20th of February 1954.
00:04:19
The middle of three
children, he was raised by a strict disciplinarian. He didn't get on
with his father.
00:04:27
There had been lots of
arguments and so on, and he very much orientated
himself towards his mother.
00:04:34
He had a very close
relationship with his mother. NARRATOR: Coming from
an affluent background,
00:04:40
Cannan attended a
private school where he claimed he was sexually
assaulted by a teacher.
00:04:46
And by the time
he was a teenager, Cannan himself was about to
commit a similar offense.
00:04:53
He commits his first sex
crime at the age of 14. He assaults a woman
in a phone box,
00:05:01
and he gets a year's probation. This is a very young
age to be offending. And very often, people who
engage in sexual assault type
00:05:11
behaviors, the first time that
they're caught by the police is not the first time
that they've engaged
00:05:16
in this kind of behavior. So it would suggest that
he'd been doing this kind of thing before then as well.
00:05:23
NARRATOR: After a short
stint in the Merchant Navy, he went to work with his
father in a car showroom.
00:05:31
By 1980, 26-year-old Cannan
was married with a daughter, but that didn't stop
him from becoming
00:05:39
a self proclaimed lothario. Cannan really does
like to make out that he's some kind
of Romeo figure,
00:05:46
that he's somebody who women
fall over themselves for. So he will quote
figures of having
00:05:51
had over 100 one night stands. He likes to be this
kind of character. Fundamentally, he's
got a very strong
00:06:00
narcissistic streak to him. He was a flirt. On one particular
occasion, he was walking past an off license.
00:06:08
And he saw a beautiful
girl in there, and he went and
bought some flowers. And then went in
and said, I'm having
00:06:14
a rather nice party tonight. I'd like to buy a couple
of bottles of wine. And he gave her these flowers,
and she was swept off her feet.
00:06:22
There could be no
denying he is extremely attractive to many women. But he is also absolutely
dangerous to them.
00:06:33
NARRATOR: By
December 1980, Cannan had separated from
his wife and was living with a new girlfriend.
00:06:41
But after growing jealous
of her relationship with her ex-husband,
he flew into a rage.
00:06:47
He launched an
astonishingly vicious attack, strangling her, raping
her, and subjecting
00:06:56
her to a series of disgraceful,
humiliating sexual attacks. It's too painful
almost to talk about.
00:07:05
He sodomized her. it's-- it's a disgraceful,
disgraceful attack. And she has to go to hospital.
00:07:12
She's-- she's got
internal injuries. I mean, she's suffered at
the hands of a man whom
00:07:18
she's invited into her house. She didn't make a
complaint at that time because she was too terrified
that he'd come back.
00:07:27
NARRATOR: Just three months
after attacking his partner, John Cannan was ready to
take his sexual crimes
00:07:34
to a new level. In March 1981, he
had his sights set on the owner of a
ladies' clothing shop
00:07:42
in his hometown of
Sutton Coldfield. He walked into the
knitwear shop with a knife
00:07:48
and held up the woman who
was then behind the counter. And the lady has got a
17-month-old child with her,
00:08:00
and she happens to be pregnant. Before he could lock
the door of the shop, in walks the woman's mother.
00:08:08
So there are three
generations of a family all within this same shop,
and Cannan is threatening.
00:08:15
He has a knife. He's a scary looking individual. He can be incredibly
overpowering
00:08:20
and incredibly domineering. And he makes it very clear
what he wants from this woman.
00:08:26
And the grandmother pleads
with him not to do this. Don't do this in front
of my grandchild.
00:08:31
And she says, my
daughter's pregnant. Please don't do this. He subjects the woman
to hideous sexual attacks,
00:08:40
even though the
baby is still there and is bawling his head off. In the midst of this, the
husband phones the shop.
00:08:50
And John Cannan panics and
cuts the telephone line. NARRATOR: Worried for
his wife's safety,
00:08:57
the pregnant woman's
husband arrived at the shop and tried to force his way
through the locked door.
00:09:04
But Cannan escaped out the back. Heavily traumatized,
the victim is still able to give
police a clear picture
00:09:15
of the man who attacked her. And it doesn't take very long
for there to be a perfectly
00:09:21
good photo fit constructed
by the police of Canaan, who is described as
between 25 and 30,
00:09:29
having dark eyes and eyebrows
that meet above his nose. NARRATOR: Within a week,
police had found Cannan,
00:09:37
despite an attempt
to disguise himself by shaving between his
distinctive eyebrows.
00:09:44
After lengthy
interviews about the case, denying it and
denying it, he did eventually admit his
guilt about that incident.
00:09:52
And equally bizarrely,
if not typically, he told the officers what
a good job they'd done.
00:09:59
I mean, he really was both
pompous and patronizing, and had this veneer of
arrogance about him.
00:10:06
NARRATOR: After serving five
years of an eight year sentence for his crimes, John
Cannan was released.
00:10:13
But he was far
from rehabilitated. In October 1986, he was in
Redding with another victim
00:10:21
in his sights. He attacks a woman
who is sitting in a car, reading a book
quite late at night.
00:10:28
And he came up to
her, opened the window, and asked for directions
to a particular street.
00:10:35
Do you know the
way to Balfour Drive? She was about to say, no. Then, he said, oh,
have you got an A to Z?
00:10:41
And as she turned to look
in the car for an A to Z, suddenly he was in there. NARRATOR: Armed with a knife,
Cannan put on a balaclava,
00:10:50
drove the woman to a
remote spot, and raped her. He then wiped down the
surfaces inside the car
00:10:57
before calmly driving her back
to where he had abducted her. Even more chillingly,
as he abandons her,
00:11:06
he says to her with a slight
smirk, take care and be good. But if you can't be
good, be careful.
00:11:15
NARRATOR: But Cannan hadn't
been as thorough as he'd hoped. Forensic tests gave
investigators a glimmer
00:11:25
of hope in finding the rapist. The semen stains on
the victim's clothing could only match
Cannan to 1 in 2,000
00:11:34
chance, which is clearly
insufficient to bring before a jury. So unfortunately, they
didn't have the forensics.
00:11:42
They didn't have the ID. They had to release him. That rape, to some extent,
gave Cannan the feeling
00:11:53
that he was impregnable,
that he was always capable of getting away with it. Every time they
do it, it escalates.
00:12:02
And in the end, they
don't want to get caught because if they
let the victims go,
00:12:06
the victims become witnesses. And they give
evidence, and then, of course, they get convicted
and they get sent to prison.
00:12:15
If you murder them and you get
away with it, you're scot free. NARRATOR: Feeling
untouchable, John Cannan
00:12:22
was ready to strike again. On the 8th of October,
29-year-old newlywed Shirley Banks drove her orange Mini
into Bristol town center
00:12:34
and headed to a
department store. On that evening, she had plans
to go shopping and possibly
00:12:41
some drinks with her friends. In particular, she wanted to go
to the Broadway Shopping Center
00:12:47
in the center of Bristol. And she had her eye on a
particular blue and white dress, which when
she bought it, it was
00:12:53
placed in a large Topshop bag-- larger than normal for
a dress of that size. NARRATOR: Shirley left the
shop at around 7:30 PM,
00:13:03
but she never arrived to
meet her friends for a drink, nor did she return home. Her husband came
home that night.
00:13:12
Knew she was gonna be late, so
didn't think anything of it. Then, went to the local pub,
asked if they'd seen her,
00:13:19
and they hadn't. I think he eventually
fell asleep. The following morning,
he phoned her work
00:13:28
and was astonished to hear that
she had phoned in that morning sick. Well, he knew that was wrong.
00:13:36
Something was up. NARRATOR: Unfortunately,
Richard's instincts were correct. Shirley Banks had been
abducted by John Cannan.
00:13:46
Shirley, I think, was forced
into making that phone call. And this is pure supposition.
00:13:51
And I think probably, Shirley
was in fear of her life. Probably went along with
what he wanted initially,
00:13:59
but obviously came to
a point where she knew this was going to end badly. This would have been
absolutely terrifying
00:14:08
for Shirley because on a
minute to minute basis, she's assessing the situation. She's figuring out
what it is that she
00:14:15
needs to do to keep herself
safe, to keep herself alive. So absolutely horrifying
situation to be in.
00:14:21
From Cannan's perspective,
on the other hand, he is loving this
because he is 100%
00:14:26
in control of what is going on. He has got a victim here who
is perhaps pleading with him,
00:14:33
perhaps begging for her life,
complying with-- with all of his instructions. So he's feeling
quite good right now.
00:14:40
NARRATOR: On the
9th of October 1987, Richard Banks reported
his wife as missing.
00:14:48
The police were
confronted with the fact that there was a missing woman-- a woman who would
almost certainly
00:14:54
either be at home or at work,
and is now clearly missing. She had an orange Mini Clubman,
a very distinctive car.
00:15:02
No sign of that, either. Has she been abducted? NARRATOR: Shirley had seemingly
vanished into thin air.
00:15:12
As the police
exhausted all avenues, four days after
her disappearance, a nationwide appeal was put out.
00:15:20
Where was Shirley Banks? The police, you know, were
getting nowhere, quite frankly.
00:15:27
And so they came
to "Crime Watch." Initially, we did an
instant desk on it, just really telling
the basic story
00:15:34
in a very short space of time. That didn't really
produce very much, either. As things gathered
pace, they realized
00:15:42
that they had a major
investigation on their hands. And then, they threw
really everything into it.
00:15:49
I mean, they even
got the RAF to take infrared photographs
of Lee Woods nearby, in case there was a body there.
00:15:56
They did dives. They did all sorts of things. But Shirley was
nowhere to be found.
00:16:03
One of the big issues for
them, as the case progressed, was that they
didn't have a body.
00:16:07
NARRATOR: As the hunt
for Shirley continued, John Cannan headed far
away from the center
00:16:13
of the investigation. 70 miles north of Bristol, he
was hunting for another victim.
00:16:21
Three weeks on from
Shirley Banks going missing, no sign of
her at all, John Cannan
00:16:27
moves his focus of
attention away from Bristol to Leamington Spa, close
to Sutton Coldfield,
00:16:35
an area he knows
particularly well. There's a shop called Ginger. John Cannan enters the shop,
and this is an eerie reflection
00:16:43
of what happened in 1981. Six years later, John Cannan
is similarly intent on rape.
00:16:51
And you can see
certain patterns and certain things recurring. And at Leamington
Spa, he once again
00:16:57
went into a ladies dress shop
and held a woman at knifepoint. NARRATOR: Wearing a motorcycle
helmet to hide his identity,
00:17:06
Cannan's actions seem to
echo the horrific attack of his past. I think Cannan was convinced
that once he had made his way
00:17:15
into that shop and had
threatened the women inside it, that he was going to be able
to-- to rape and sexually
00:17:20
assault one or both of them. But one of the women, when she
went to lock the door as Cannan
00:17:26
had instructed her to do,
used that as an opportunity to actually flee the shop.
00:17:31
Cannan, unsuccessful
in his attempts, dashes for the door to
make good his escape.
00:17:38
But John Cannan should have
run a lot faster than he did because two or three guys
walking down the street
00:17:45
heard this girl scream. They saw Cannan running
away, and they chased him. And after a cat and mouse
chase around Leamington Spa,
00:17:54
the police pounced,
and they got him. NARRATOR: John Cannan
was finally behind bars,
00:18:02
but detectives had no idea
they'd arrested the man who was responsible for the
disappearance of Shirley Banks
00:18:09
just three weeks earlier. Warwickshire police
had thought they had in custody an armed robber.
00:18:17
When they arrest him, they found
the car keys, which was a BMW parked near the Ginger shop.
00:18:23
What they had no idea was
what was inside that car. It was an absolute
treasure trove of evidence,
00:18:30
involving handcuffs and
rope and an imitation gun. But most importantly,
it had a tax
00:18:37
disk from Shirley Banks' car. Now, why is he
holding onto this, because it's a
piece of incredibly
00:18:45
incriminating evidence. I don't think he ever thought
he was going to get caught,
00:18:50
so he wasn't really thinking
about the implications of it. He'd kept this tax
disk as a memento,
00:18:57
as something to
remember this crime by. NARRATOR: Also in the car
was a large Topshop bag,
00:19:04
similar to the one
Shirley had been given when she bought her new
dress on that fateful night.
00:19:10
Aware that Shirley Banks
was currently missing, Warwickshire police contacted
their colleagues in Bristol.
00:19:18
Finally, investigators had
a breakthrough in the case. Avon and Somerset
police drove up
00:19:24
to Leamington Spa the
evening of the next day, and they drove him back to
Bristol that same night.
00:19:32
Cannan spent the
whole time talking. Most people now just
say, no comment. But he insisted on
talking endlessly
00:19:41
in the back seat of the car,
kind of justifying himself and explaining what
kind of a man he was.
00:19:49
NARRATOR: Police had also
found another major piece of the puzzle at
Cannan's Bristol home--
00:19:56
Shirley Banks' distinctive car. The orange Mini Clubman
is found in the lock up garages beneath Foye
House, where Cannan is living.
00:20:08
It's been painted blue-- hand painted, it's
not been sprayed. And he's changed
the number plate.
00:20:16
As soon as John
Cannan is questioned, he denies any connection with
Shirley Banks whatsoever.
00:20:22
Claims he'd never
met her at all. He came up with this
wonderful, creative account
00:20:27
of how he had bought this car
in good faith at an auction. So he makes up this narrative.
00:20:34
I bought it at a car auction. But he didn't actually know
where Bristol Car Auction was.
00:20:39
He had to actually ask one
of the police officers this. So it's starting to fall
apart at this point in time.
00:20:46
His level of arrogance
is still incredibly high, and he thinks he's gonna
get away with stuff.
00:20:51
But the police are noticing
all of these little holes in his story. NARRATOR: John
Cannan's web of lies
00:20:57
was unraveling at rapid speed. Detectives were certain
he was responsible for the disappearance
of Shirley Banks,
00:21:05
but they were desperate
for some concrete evidence. They had just 36 hours before
they'd have to release him.
00:21:13
The clock was ticking. As detectives continued to
search Cannan's Bristol home, they discovered an eerie
video for a dating agency,
00:21:23
filmed just six weeks earlier. WOMAN: What do you
look for in a partner? What attracts you?
00:21:31
I think apart from
the physical side, um-- again, I think somebody who's
pleasant, who's natural,
00:21:41
who's relaxed. He presents as a very
suave, a very charming, flashing his eyes at this
woman who's interviewing him.
00:21:53
You know, I'm
looking for somebody who's intelligent as me. And well, you know, I've
got a beautiful flat.
00:21:57
And it's all bull. And it's so oily and slimy. And you look at his facial
expressions, and you can see--
00:22:08
when you know what to look for-- shallowness. Yes, I have a dislike
of inflated egos.
00:22:18
People who are-- they
look at me at great type. I don't like that. I just like-- just
normal, average people.
00:22:26
When you look at that
video, you look at his eyes. And you think, God,
there's something
00:22:32
strange about this man. And-- and he is sort of
riveting, in an appalling way. And you could see that he
could be charming to women.
00:22:42
But at the same time,
there's something really deadly about those eyes. It is genuinely
terrifying because you
00:22:51
know that this man
is capable and has already been capable of
the most profound violence
00:22:58
towards women. I'm in a sedimentary
period, where financially and career wise I've achieved
what I've wanted to achieve.
00:23:05
I'm just now looking for
the next thing to achieve. That is ultimately
John Cannan, ultimately.
00:23:13
He purports to be what he's not. He calls himself a
successful businessman who's
00:23:20
got businesses in Bristol. He's looking for a
profile of a young lady. And he waxes lyrical.
00:23:28
And the arrogance of the
man is just unbelievable. NARRATOR: Detectives needed
more time to find evidence.
00:23:38
They charge Cannan with
the assault and attempted robbery in Leamington Spa. This brought them another
72 hours to question him
00:23:48
about Shirley Banks. Investigators had another
avenue to explore-- a nearby attack on the 7th of
October 1987, just 24 hours
00:23:59
before Shirley's disappearance. A woman called Julia Holman
was having a drink with friends
00:24:06
and then went off to her car. It was about 6:30. And in October, it
was dark, but this was
00:24:13
towards the center of Bristol. As she got into the
car, Cannan approached her with a gun and threatened her.
00:24:23
Now, Julia Holman reacted
spectacularly swiftly. In fact, her reactions almost
certainly saved her life.
00:24:31
Instead of being
paralyzed with fear, her reaction was to strike out
with her arm and with her leg,
00:24:39
slam the car door,
screaming as she did, and then speed off
as fast as she could.
00:24:44
NARRATOR: Cannan was
an immediate suspect. On the 5th of November,
an ID parade was arranged.
00:24:52
Julia Holman would
once again come face to face with her attacker. Cannan is put in a row.
00:25:00
He's number three in
the identity parade. Julia Holman identifies
him instantly.
00:25:08
It's number three. That immediately
really helped to nail that he was the man
responsible for the attack
00:25:17
on Julia Holman the day before. So the evidence was building up. NARRATOR: Charging
Cannan with the attempted
00:25:24
abduction of Julia bought
detectives more time. But by the 10th of November,
they were out of options.
00:25:32
They decided they
had enough evidence to charge John Cannan with
the kidnap of Shirley Banks,
00:25:38
but not her murder. However, their luck
was about to change. He had this sort
of monk's chest
00:25:46
with all sorts of
papers in his flat. And forensics obviously, back
in those days, were quite slow.
00:25:53
But finally, they
discovered a fingerprint. NARRATOR: It was possible
that this unknown fingerprint
00:26:00
could belong to Shirley Banks. But they didn't have her prints
on record to cross-check it.
00:26:07
Fortunately, the forensic team
had an ace up their sleeve. The fingerprint officers were
able to examine Shirley Banks'
00:26:16
house and produce a
composite set of fingermarks from items that she would touch
in the normal course of life.
00:26:26
So common items, things like
long playing record covers, cassettes, and actually
build up a set of composites
00:26:33
from those frequently
handled items. Which would then be
compared against the mark,
00:26:39
the image that was recovered
from Cannan's address. It proved that connection. It proved that she'd actually
been in the house at the time.
00:26:50
NARRATOR: There was now no
doubt that Shirley Banks had been inside John Cannan's home.
00:26:56
Worried that the wily
33-year-old would try and wriggle his way
out of the accusation,
00:27:02
detectives knew they had
to be one step ahead. So cleverly, they take
John Cannan to the scene
00:27:10
and say to him, you
know, has Shirley Banks ever been in your flat? Answer, no. Well, this is some of the
things we found in your flat.
00:27:19
Are they yours? Yes. Showed him the document. Is this yours? Yes. Did this document
ever leave your flat?
00:27:29
Answer, no. How do you explain Shirley
Banks' thumbprint is on it? It was a clever series
of events to make
00:27:37
him admit everything before
they played the trump card. NARRATOR: On the 23rd
of December 1987,
00:27:45
John Cannan was charged with
the murder of Shirley Banks. But investigators
hadn't found her body,
00:27:52
and Cannan was still
denying everything. There are cases where
somebody's been convicted
00:28:00
of a murder with no body. And there are some
very good instances of that over the years.
00:28:07
But it makes it difficult
for the investigators. You know, you can have all
the evidence in the world.
00:28:14
But if you haven't got
the cause of death, you can't say it's murder
with any certainty.
00:28:20
NARRATOR: On the
3rd of April 1988, a woman foraging in
the eerily and aptly named Dead Woman's
Ditch in Somerset
00:28:29
made a grisly discovery. Six months after
she disappeared, the body of Shirley Banks
had finally been found.
00:28:40
Her body was naked,
decomposed as you'd imagine. And alongside it, they found
elements of her jewelry
00:28:46
and also fibers and parts
of the blue and white dress that she had bought
from Topshop.
00:28:57
In Shirley's case, she
was battered about the head. Could have been something
like a baseball bat
00:29:05
or a heavy boulder or a
rock or something like that. You know, trauma to the head,
which causes severe bleeding,
00:29:12
and that would have
been cause of death. NARRATOR: With confirmation
that Shirley had indeed
00:29:18
been murdered, investigators
continue to build their case against John Cannan. So the forensic
evidence is mounting up.
00:29:28
All the bits are
falling into place. All the other police forces
where the other serial sex
00:29:38
offenses have taken place,
notify even in Somerset, and they follow up. NARRATOR: Further
investigations led to charges
00:29:49
being filed against Cannan,
ranging from assault and GBH to theft and murder. Detectives in Redding also
reopened an unsolved rape case
00:29:59
from 1986. DNA had come on in
leaps and bounds in just a couple of years. We'd had advances
in procedures
00:30:11
to extract and recover DNA, so
it was far more discriminating. And so they went back,
and they got forensics
00:30:20
to re-analyze the semen
stains they picked up from the lady's clothing. When they'd done the original
match two years before,
00:30:28
they said there was
a 1 in 2,000 chance of it being Cannan's semen. Now, it was 1 in
260 million chance.
00:30:38
So with great
pleasure, police were now able to charge John
Cannan for the first time
00:30:44
with the Redding rape. [quiet music] NARRATOR: At his trial at Exeter
Crown Court in April 1989,
00:30:55
John Cannan was charged with 16
different offenses, including the 1987 murder
of Shirley Banks,
00:31:03
the Redding rape in 1986,
and even the assault on his ex-partner in 1980,
who felt brave enough to come
00:31:11
forward almost a decade later. It was very unusual for a
judge to accept more than one
00:31:19
previous allegation charge. And a number of charges
were tried at the same time,
00:31:27
by the same jury in
this particular case, and the judge allowed it. NARRATOR: On the
28th of April 1989,
00:31:35
John Cannan faced
the jury's verdict. After having sat
there in court that day, I believe he thought he
would get away with it.
00:31:45
Even though the weight of
the evidence in that trial was clearly going
in one direction.
00:31:51
But he thought he would
still get away with it. John Cannan looked stunned
by the first verdict.
00:31:59
Once the first
verdict of guilty, which was the sex attack
on his ex-girlfriend,
00:32:04
he knew that the rest,
like dominoes, would just fall in the same direction. NARRATOR: John Cannan
was found guilty
00:32:12
and told he would
spend life behind bars. The judge, Mr. Justice
Drake, described him
00:32:21
as vile and evil,
violent, and horrible beneath his veneer of charm. In a very telling statement,
he also said, this man
00:32:32
should never be put at liberty. He made it quite clear that he
intended that this man should
00:32:38
have a life means life tariff. NARRATOR: Safely
locked away in prison, John Cannan was no
longer a threat to women.
00:32:46
But his story was far from over. Since his incarceration,
he's been linked to a number of unsolved cases.
00:32:57
But his unwillingness to
cooperate with police inquiries has led to many investigations
reaching a dead end.
00:33:05
I have no doubt that there
are other victims of Cannan, whether those are
women he's killed,
00:33:11
whether they're women he's
raped and sexually assaulted. I don't believe
that he will ever
00:33:16
reveal details of them that
would lead to a conviction. I think he's gonna sprinkle
a few details here and there.
00:33:23
He's gonna drop a few hints
because he quite enjoys toying with people in that way.
00:33:29
NARRATOR: Possible links have
been explored between Cannan and the unsolved murder of
27-year-old Sandra Court
00:33:37
in Bournemouth in May 1986. And he remains the
prime suspect for one of Britain's most
infamous cold cases,
00:33:46
the disappearance
of Suzy Lamplugh. Suzy was last
seen on the morning of the 28th of July 1986.
00:33:55
She turned up for work-- it was a Monday morning-- in Sturgis Estate
Agents in Fulham Road.
00:34:02
And in her diary, she had an
appointment with a Mr. Kipper for later that morning.
00:34:08
She subsequently left
the estate agents, got into the company
car, and drove to view a house in Shorrald
Road and another one
00:34:20
near Bishop's Park in Fulham. And she never returned. And she's never been
seen or heard of since.
00:34:28
NARRATOR: From the day that
25-year-old Suzy went missing, her brother Richard
has experienced
00:34:35
a whole range of emotions. As a-- someone
who's missing, you don't want to look at it and
sort of think, oh, she's dead.
00:34:45
Or oh, she's, you know. You always want to think
positively and feel positive. And so you-- you
want to always keep
00:34:54
your hopes up that she might
just walk through the door. And that's what I felt.
I didn't feel like it
00:35:00
was time to grieve or anything. It wasn't time to miss her. I just wanted a happy outcome.
00:35:07
You get to the stage where, you
know, after maybe two months, you sort of think oh,
maybe she's not coming.
00:35:14
You know, maybe that is it. So I felt, myself,
I was trying to keep my hopes up all the time, which
is quite exhausting in a way.
00:35:24
But I think it's a way of
sort of coping with it. NARRATOR: By 1999,
when Jim Dickie took
00:35:33
over the investigation,
the Suzy Lamplugh case had gone unsolved for 13 years. The original
investigation petered
00:35:44
out after a number of years. Everything that could be
followed up, that was obvious,
00:35:50
had been followed up. It wasn't put away, as we
say in police parlance. I.e. it's filed away and, you
know, is left to gather dust.
00:35:59
That wasn't done. It was still an open
inquiry, but just no one was actually working on it.
00:36:05
NARRATOR: Jim believes that
John Cannan attacked Suzy just after he'd been freed from
serving five years in prison
00:36:13
for the rape of the pregnant
mother in her knitwear shop. He was released from
prison on the 26th of July.
00:36:21
Suzy went missing
on the 28th of July. And we have witnesses
that put Cannan staring into the estate agents
window on the Sunday the 27th.
00:36:33
We have a cab driver witness,
who dropped John Cannan in Fulham Broadway on the 28th.
00:36:42
Two witnesses compiled an
E-FIT with a police officer. And that picture, if
you looked at it today
00:36:49
and it was published
in all the media, you would say, looking
at a photograph of John
00:36:54
Cannan, that was John Cannan. NARRATOR: During
the investigation into the disappearance
of Shirley Banks,
00:37:02
who Cannan murdered
in 1987, her Mini was discovered at his home. It had been repainted,
and the registration
00:37:10
number had been changed. It was this alteration that
piqued many people's interests.
00:37:17
SLP386S-- there is a theory. Suzy Lamplugh,
third victim of '86. That's one school of thought.
00:37:28
Another school of
thought, it could be a map reference for
the deposition of a body
00:37:33
on an Ordnance Survey map. Now, whether that is right
or not, I don't know. But it's pretty close to
where Shirley Banks' body was
00:37:43
recovered, which is near Dead
Woman's Ditch in the Quantocks, in Somerset. NARRATOR: In December 2000,
officers from Jim Dickie's team
00:37:52
had the opportunity to
interview John Cannan in prison. Throughout the interrogation,
the 46-year-old killer
00:38:00
maintained his composure. He was quite quick witted. I'll give him that. Because when we interviewed
him, what he does-- and we knew
00:38:10
this because we researched it-- that he would try and turn
the interview on its head,
00:38:15
so that he's asking
you questions as opposed to us asking him. And we were prepared for that.
00:38:21
We knew that. We knew he was going to do that. And what did he do? He did exactly that.
00:38:26
But if you look at his
body language on the video, it says it all. Some questions, he did
not have an answer for,
00:38:32
and he was very,
very uncomfortable. And as far as I'm
concerned, it's very simple.
00:38:39
If something looks like a
duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I think
we can say it's a [muted] duck.
00:38:48
You often find him
saying these cryptic things to people, these things that are
supposed to get people going,
00:38:55
what? And that is because he
enjoys being in control. He likes to be the one
who's pulling the strings.
00:39:01
It's not a crime. I've done many things
wrong in my life, things that-- believe me--
00:39:07
I am genuinely sorry for. One or two things I
haven't been caught for. [music playing]
00:39:16
NARRATOR: John Cannan
has always denied any involvement in the
disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh.
00:39:22
Without a body and with
no forensic evidence, the Crown Prosecution
Service decided there was not
00:39:28
enough evidence to prosecute. But in November 2002,
the Metropolitan Police announced they weren't looking
for anyone else in connection
00:39:38
with the case. There are people
who know things. If they came forward, we
would only need a small amount
00:39:44
of fresh evidence now to
bring what we believe would be a credible prosecution. I was there at the
press conference.
00:39:54
And yes, it was unprecedented
for them to do this. But there was the
only course of action
00:40:02
that they could
take that does seem like he's got away with it. He obviously hasn't been
prosecuted for my sister's
00:40:10
murder, but it all seems
the roads, as they say, all seem to lead to him. NARRATOR: In 2018, police
excavated the garden
00:40:22
at Cannan's mother's
former home. They'd received information
that Cannan laid a new patio
00:40:28
in the months following
Suzy's disappearance and hoped to have
finally found her.
00:40:34
Nothing was uncovered. In my view, John Cannan
will take the secrets of Suzy Lamplugh's death to his grave.
00:40:43
I cannot see him opening up and
admitting that he had anything to do with it, or
showing any remorse
00:40:50
about what happened at all. I have nothing but
contempt for this man. I would love to bury Suze
where we wanted, as a family,
00:41:02
to bury her, rather than
where he has buried her. NARRATOR: Although Cannan was
sentenced to life in prison,
00:41:12
he is due for parole
in the near future-- after serving 35
years behind bars. You just hope and pray that
they don't let this man out,
00:41:25
because I think it would
be a horrific situation if they were to let him out. Because really, you know,
this is a man who should
00:41:34
not be at large in society. He sees himself as of superior
intelligence, intellect,
00:41:42
and the rest of
us are just plebs. We might be plebs in his eyes,
but he's an arrogant serial sex
00:41:49
offender. And if he's ever
released from prison, God knows what he will do. NARRATOR: For now,
John Cannan remains
00:41:58
behind bars, a convicted
rapist and murderer who ruined so many lives. The pain he inflicted,
not just on Shirley Banks
00:42:07
but on her family, should
never be forgotten. I have four kids of my own. I cannot think what it's like to
have to bury your-- your child,
00:42:19
and to do it under
those circumstances. And to have lived
through a period when her body hadn't been
found, as well, is just
00:42:27
utterly, utterly appalling. I think in all of this,
we shouldn't forget the broad range of
victims of Cannan
00:42:36
because it's not just those
individuals who were victims. All sorts of members of their
families were victims, too.
00:42:43
They were all victims
of John Cannan. NARRATOR: Cannan is a
violent sexual predator.
00:42:53
He's displayed no remorse
for any of his crimes, from raping a pregnant woman
in front of her own mother
00:42:59
and child to killing
a newlywed for nothing more than his own
self gratification.
00:43:06
Hiding behind the veneer
of a suave businessman, John Cannan thought he
was Gods gift to women.
00:43:13
But in fact, he was the devil
in disguise, and undoubtedly one of the "World's
Most Evil Killers."
00:43:22
[theme music]