News

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.

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 this week at the age of 70, some 22 years after he was named as the prime suspect in the 1986 disappearance of 25-year-old Suzy.

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

‘We have never been able to properly grieve for Suzy,’ he said today after news of Cannan’s death was announced on Wednesday evening.

He added: ‘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.’

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

It was only years later that he was named as the prime suspect in the disappearance of estate agent Suzy, which he denied.

Richard Lamplugh, now 64, was 26 when he last saw his sister.

Remarking on Cannan’s death in custody, 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.’

He 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.

Ms Lamplugh was declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1993, having gone missing in July 1986 at the age of 25.

She had 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.

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

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.

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 said the family spent months hoping Suzy was still alive and would one day come home.

‘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.’

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.’

Related Posts

Emotional Biden has to be guided on stage and kisses his sister on the lips at plaque unveiling for late son Beau

An emotional President Joe Biden was guided onstage as he attended a plaque unveiling Monday for his late son Major Beau Biden marking Veterans Day. The president traveled back to Delaware Monday afternoon, with the White House giving no information about why he was making the trek home after spending the weekend away at Rehoboth Beach. On-site he was spotted giving a smooch on the lips to sister Valerie Biden and hugging Beau’s widow Hallie – who famously dated Hunter Biden after Beau’s death from brain cancer in 2015.

Geraldo Riviera offers blistering takedown of why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump

Former Fox News host Geraldo Riviera has delivered a blistering takedown as to why Kamala Harris lost last week’s presidential election against Donald Trump. Geraldo admits that he voted for Kamala, acknowledging that she ‘ran a pretty good campaign under tough circumstances’ after President Joe Biden stepped aside in July. Geraldo says he believed Trump’s campaign was able to capitalize on fears about immigration and ‘wokeness’, framing the election as a battle for America’s identity.

Archbishop Justin Welby must quit after ‘ignoring’ child sex abuse by Church of England’s most prolific attacker, say clergy and victims

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s position looked increasingly untenable last night after a senior bishop told him to resign. The Bishop of Newcastle broke ranks to say Justin Welby must step down after a damning report found that his failure to act meant a prolific child abuser was never brought to justice. Helen-Ann Hartley joined the growing chorus of voices demanding the Archbishop resign immediately so the Church of England can begin drawing a line under the scandal.

Phil Foden’s party-loving mother blasted by neighbours for ‘deafening Disneyland two-hour fireworks display’ at her £3.5m Cheshire mansion ‘that left pets and children in immense distress’

Phil Foden’s party-loving mother has upset neighbours with a ‘deafening two-hour fireworks party’ that they compared to displays at ‘Sydney Harbour Bridge or Disneyland’ in the back garden of her house in leafy Cheshire. Residents in the upmarket lane in Prestbury had to calm terrified pets and infants when the ‘display-standard’ pyrotechnics began and claimed they were given no warning by Claire Rowlands of the event which lasted from 6pm until 8.30pm on Wednesday night. One, who lives close by, said: ‘It must have cost thousands.

Donald Trump to name Marco Rubio as Secretary of State

Donald Trump will name his former nemesis Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, sources tell DailyMail.com. Rubio, who was elected to the Senate in 2010, is considered a foreign policy hawk and will lead Trump’s prowess on the world stage. He currently serves as the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was considered to be on Trump’s shortlist for vice president earlier this year.

Keir Starmer throws down the gauntlet to Donald Trump and urges him to ‘show leadership’ on climate change – as he arrives in Azerbaijan for COP29 climate summit

Keir Starmer threw down the gauntlet to Donald Trump at the Cop29 summit today by urging him to ‘show leadership’ on climate change. The Prime Minister issued the challenge to the US President-elect as he arrived at the UN conference in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Sir Keir is one of just a small handful of world leaders who have come to the annual event, aimed at curbing catastrophic global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *