John Cannan

John David Guise Cannan (20 February 1954 – 6 November 2024) was a British murderer, serial rapist, serial abductor, and suspected serial killer. He was convicted in July 1988 and given three life sentences for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in October 1987; the attempted kidnapping of Julia Holman on the previous night; the rape of a woman in Reading, Berkshire, in 1986; the rape of his girlfriend in December 1980; and several other abductions, attempted abductions and sexual offences. He became eligible for parole in September 2023, which was refused the following month.

Cannan was the only suspect in the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh, who had an appointment in July 1986 to meet a man calling himself 'Mr Kipper' and has not been seen since. In November 2002, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence to charge him. That month Scotland Yard held a press conference at which, in a rare move, officers named Cannan as the man they believed murdered Lamplugh. 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. DNA evidence showed Lamplugh had previously been in a car Cannan used at the time of her disappearance.

Cannan died in HM Prison Full Sutton, on 6 November 2024, at the age of 70, from natural causes.