Inquest opens into death of Suzy Lamplugh suspect

A man who killed a woman and was suspected of murdering missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh died in prison of natural causes, an inquest has heard.

John Cannan was jailed in 1989 for the rape and murder of newlywed Shirley Banks, from Bristol.

He was also the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of 25-year-old Ms Lamplugh, from London, who disappeared in 1986. Her body has never been found.

Cannan died aged 70 in HMP Full Sutton, in East Yorkshire, on 6 November and an inquest into his death was opened and adjourned earlier at Hull Coroner's Court.

In a five-minute hearing, Lorraine Harris, the area coroner for Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire, said the cause of his death was a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

She said Cannan was identified by prison officer Gary Stockdale and various reports would be drawn up before a full inquest, the date of which is yet to be set.

Cannan was jailed for life for the abduction and murder of 29-year-old factory manager Mrs Banks and two further rapes.

She was abducted after heading out on a shopping trip in Bristol.

Cannan was arrested 11 days later in Birmingham, where some of Mrs Banks' possessions were found.

Her body was later discovered in a stream in Somerset.

Ms Lamplugh disappeared after going to meet a client in Fulham on 28 July 1986. He was known only as "Mr Kipper" and was never traced.

According to reports, Cannan was nicknamed Kipper during an earlier prison sentence.

He also bore a resemblance to an e-fit of a man with whom Ms Lamplugh was seen talking to on the day she went missing - thought to be the mysterious Mr Kipper.

Cannan was questioned in prison over her disappearance but no charges were ever brought.

Police searched the back garden of his mother's former home in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, in 2018 but nothing was found.

In October 2023, the parole board ruled Cannan, who was a category A prisoner, was too dangerous to release.

The panel heard Cannan still maintained he was innocent and had not engaged in any accredited programmes to address the risk of reoffending while in jail.

Following his death, Ms Lamplugh's brother said the family would never get closure.

Richard Lamplugh, 64, said he was "not mourning John Cannan" but had been left instead mourning the "loss of him ever giving us closure".

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