John David Guise Cannan was a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor, and suspected serial killer.
59 Facts About John Cannan
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John Cannan became eligible for parole in September 2023, which was refused the following month.
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John Cannan said he knew who killed Lamplugh, and stated that this person is the same person responsible for the murder of Shirley Banks, of which he himself was convicted.
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DNA evidence showed Lamplugh had previously been in a car John Cannan used at the time of her disappearance.
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John Cannan died in HM Prison Full Sutton, on 6 November 2024, at the age of 70, from natural causes.
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John Cannan was born on 20 February 1954, to father Cyril Cannan, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, and career engineer, and housewife mother Sheila Cannan in Sutton Coldfield, then in Warwickshire.
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John Cannan came from a middle-class family and was first sent by his parents to Keyse private school for boys at the age of 4.
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John Cannan attended public school until the age of 15.
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At the age of 9, John Cannan was removed from the school and sought medical help for his anxiety.
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John Cannan was married in May 1978 to June Vale and had a daughter, but left them in 1980.
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In 1968, at age 14, John Cannan indecently assaulted a woman in a phone box in Erdington, for which he was placed on probation.
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John Cannan married his first wife, June Vale, in May 1978, seven years after they had originally become engaged.
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John Cannan would prove to be his one and only steady girlfriend although he claimed that he was hassled into marrying her.
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Vale soon gave birth to a child, which John Cannan did not want.
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Police now suspect that John Cannan was responsible for these offences, and that he began committing them as his marriage deteriorated.
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Notably, John Cannan showed up uninvited to a house that was for sale in Shorrolds Road in Fulham days before Lamplugh was last seen there, believing that the young female occupant was alone in the house.
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John Cannan was acting strangely until the woman's husband appeared, causing him to quickly leave.
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John Cannan left his wife in 1980 for Major, whom he attacked when she tried to leave him, turning up at her house on New Year's Eve with a bottle of wine and, unbeknownst to her, a gun.
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John Cannan told her on the way to the hospital that he had meant to kill her.
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John Cannan robbed a petrol station kiosk in February 1981, using a knife to threaten two female assistants.
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At Birmingham Crown Court on 26 June 1981, after pleading guilty, John Cannan was sentenced to five years imprisonment for raping Bradford and a consecutive three years for two counts of robbery.
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John Cannan served his sentence at HM Prison Bristol before being transferred to Portland, Dorset, and then to London.
23.
Between 1986 and 1987, John Cannan had an affair with his solicitor; he then threatened her and her family.
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John Cannan had been arrested for this offence earlier but denied everything, giving the alibi that he was in Sutton Coldfield at the time of the attack.
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In September 1987, Cannan signed up for a video-dating agency, giving the fake name of "John Peterson".
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An HTV West news report in 1989 said that John Cannan's dating video had received a high response from other daters.
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John Cannan's husband searched for her in bars when she failed to return home, as they had agreed to meet for a drink; when he rang her work the next morning, he was told she had just phoned in sick with an upset stomach 15 minutes earlier.
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John Cannan, then living at Foye House, Leigh Woods, 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.
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John Cannan evaded them briefly, but they found a knife and bag with blood on it.
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John Cannan had no alibi for the night of Banks's disappearance, and he claimed he had bought Banks's Mini from a man at an auction.
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John Cannan shouted towards the man with "dark, curly hair" who saw her, ran towards her, and lunged at her.
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John Cannan 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.
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John Cannan acknowledged that the document came from his flat before he knew about the thumbprint.
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John Cannan was charged with her kidnap and murder on 23 December 1987.
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John Cannan was jailed for life by Mr Justice Drake at Exeter Crown Court.
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John Cannan was last seen walking barefoot, appearing slightly drunk, at around 2:45 am.
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Additionally, after a red Ford Sierra that John Cannan had access to when Court was murdered was discovered at a north London scrapyard during the Lamplugh reinvestigations of the early-2000s, two hairs were found inside that matched the DNA of Court.
38.
In 2007 crime writers Christopher Berry-Dee and Robin Odell, while writing a book on John Cannan, handed police letters they had received from John Cannan from prison, which gave them a means of comparison to the original letter.
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When interviewed, John Cannan denied having ever been to Bournemouth on the day in question, but was shown to have lied because of the pay and display parking ticket.
40.
John Cannan has been released from prison before and committed crimes.
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John Cannan is a danger to the female population, particularly the blonde, twenty-something professionals like Suzy.
42.
John Cannan was questioned by police regarding the disappearance of 25-year-old Susannah "Suzy" Jane Lamplugh in 1989 and 1990.
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John Cannan wrote a letter to the local paper, Sutton News, in August 1991 denying any part in her disappearance.
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John Cannan was officially declared dead in absentia in July 1993.
45.
In December 2000, John Cannan was arrested for Lamplugh's murder and questioned, but he was not charged.
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John Cannan's solicitor complained about a lack of presumption of innocence and that the prison service had withheld letters Cannan had tried to send to national newspapers regarding the allegations.
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In July 1993, The Independent argued that the judge's sentencing statement, that John Cannan should remain in prison for the rest of his natural life, removed any incentive for him to confess post-conviction.
48.
John Cannan was released from his prison hostel three days before Lamplugh disappeared.
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John Cannan's colleagues said he often went to wine bars in Fulham, where Lamplugh worked.
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Lamplugh was supposed to meet a "Mr Kipper" when she disappeared, and John Cannan was said to have used the name "Kipper" in prison.
51.
In 2007, a criminologist who had corresponded with John Cannan revealed that police reinvestigations had discovered DNA evidence showing Lamplugh had been inside a car previously owned by John Cannan.
52.
John Cannan was a Category A offender in HMP Full Sutton, York.
53.
John Cannan studied for an Open University degree while in prison.
54.
An anonymous relation of John Cannan's stated a belief that he would confess when his mother died.
55.
In June 2022, it was reported that John Cannan was on his deathbed and receiving palliative care.
56.
In September 2023 John Cannan faced a parole hearing after serving his minimum term of 33 years and 214 days.
57.
In July 1989, John Cannan failed to persuade the High Court to stop the BBC broadcasting a Crimewatch UK documentary on the investigation into the murder of Banks.
58.
John Cannan appealed for his 35-year minimum tariff to be reduced, but 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".
59.
John Cannan died in HM Prison Full Sutton on 6 November 2024, at the age of 70.