Is this the moment murdered Suzy Lamplugh’s prime suspect ADMITS he was involved in her disappearance?
THIS is the chilling moment the prime suspect in Suzy Lamplugh’s murder appears to admit he was involved in her disappearance to police.
Convicted rapist and murderer John Cannan has been named by police as the monster who killed Suzy, 25, in July 1986.
But the CPS has ruled there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him over the estate agent’s disappearance.
A new documentary has now explored how Cannan’s “wide-eyed” look of fear appeared to show his possible guilt at Suzy’s murder.
The serial predator, who murderer Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1987, was interviewed by police 14 years after she vanished and repeatedly maintained his innocence.
But experts on TV show Faking It have revealed the tell-tale signs Cannan expressed that suggest he was lying.
They have also analysed the moment the fiend admits he has committed crimes he is “genuinely sorry” about that he hasn’t even been caught for.
Body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley says: “Does he realise that’s a stupid thing to say right now? Because what you can see in his eyes is fear.
“His eyes have widened – you can almost see the whites of the eye as we move into a micro-expression of wide-eyed fear.
“He’s experiencing a fear state, and that could be because he’s just semi-confessed.”
Cannan appears to grow angry in the interview as he attempts to move police away from their line of questioning.
He tells them: “I don’t really see, as things currently stand, what else there is to be said.”
But Dr Lansley explains how the murderer is faking his anger, saying: “Unfortunately for him, what he’s adding is a qualifier.
“In other words, ‘what you’ve got me on so far is just circumstantial and therefore I’m not going to give you anything else because I’m feeling fairly secure at the moment.”
Linguistics expert Dawn Archer also tells the show how the words Cannan uses is another potential clue.
She says: “He uses ‘done it’ and ‘doing it,’ so we’ve got examples of being deliberately ambiguous and distancing.
“‘It’ is a form of distancing himself from even naming what happened to Suzy Lamplugh.”
Estate agent Suzy vanished in July 1986 after going to show a client named Mr Kipper a home in Fulham, West London.
She was officially declared dead eight years later with her parents tragically dying before discovering what happened to their daughter.
Rapist, kidnapper and murderer Cannan was questioned about her disappearance and was arrested for the murder in 2000.
But the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him – with police later taking the rare step of naming him as a prime suspect in 2002.
Cannan had been released from a prison hostel just three days before Suzy disappeared and was even said to use the name “Kipper” in jail.
A criminologist also revealed DNA evidence linked Suzy to a Ford Sierra he once used with the false number plate SLP 386S.
DS Mike Barley, who worked on the Suzy Lamplugh investigation for 10 years, reveals how Cannan admitted his involvement because of the car.
He tells the show: “He said about the car that it belonged to a Bristol businessman, and that he was the man who was responsible the murder of Suzy Lamplugh.
“I said to him, ‘is that man you, John?’ And he said ‘yes,’
“Then we went, ‘no, I meant it’s not me,’ and back tracked.
“I actually believe for that very brief moment in time that John Cannan was telling the truth. It was enough for me that he was the man responsible. But you can’t prosecute someone for murder on one word.”
Cannan began his sadistic rampage against women when he was just 14 after he assaulted a woman inside a phone booth.
In 1980, he choked his mistress during sex and told her he was going to kill her when she tried to leave him.
The monster committed his first rape a year later when he attacked tied up another lover and attacked her in front of her mum at knifepoint.
He was jailed for eight years in 1981 but later transferred to an open prison – meaning he was on day release at the time of Suzy’s disappearance.
Cannan went on to rape a woman in Reading and later signed up for a video dating agency weeks before he attempted to kidnap a woman at gunpoint.
Textile factory manager Shirley Banks, 29, had recently married when she was snatched in Bristol in 1987.
Her naked body was found six months after her disappearance at a site named “Dead Woman’s Ditch” in Somerset.
Shockingly, Cannan managed to overturn a whole life tariff originally handed to him in 1989 when he was convicted of Shirley’s murder.
He has since also attempted to appeal the mandatory 35 years minimum sentence that replaced it but his plea has been rejected.
However, the 35 years is up in October next year – with Cannan now making a bid for freedom with a Parole Board hearing.
The fiend is still protesting his innocence over Suzy’s disappearance from behind bars.
DS Barley says: “In my 25 years of policing, this one sticks with me.
“It’s not a success. It’s not a success from the policing perspective. We haven’t found the body; we haven’t found Suzy. We cannot give satisfaction to the family.”
- The brand-new series of Faking It airs at 10pm on Saturdays on Quest Red, or stream now on discovery+
