Chilling footage has revealed the moment the prime suspect in the Suzy Lamplugh murder case was asked by police ‘what have you done with her body’.
Suspected killer John Cannon appears to taunt officers as they quiz him about the disappearance of Miss Lamplugh.
He was questioned over three days in December 2000 at Hammersmith police station in West London.
In the tapes Cannan says: ‘I have committed crime, I have done many things wrong in my life, things that believe me I am genuinely sorry for, one or two things I haven’t even been caught for.’
Suspected killer John Cannon appears to taunt officers as they quiz him about the disappearance of Miss Lamplugh
John Cannan (left) is the man police believe murdered Suzy Lamplugh (right) but he denied it from his jail cell
Miss Lamplugh was declared dead, presumed murdered, after going missing at the age of 25, having left her west London offices to meet a mystery client known only as Mr Kipper in 1986.
Cannan was named by police as their prime suspect in 2002 and Miss Lamplugh’s death has remained one of the UK’s most notorious cold cases.
Three days before her disappearance, Cannan had been released from a hostel at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where he served a six-year sentence for rape.
He was also connected to the case due to his strong resemblance to an e-fit of her abductor and, according to reports, he was nicknamed Kipper while serving his earlier sentence.
Some 18 hours of VHS cassettes were found in a rubbish tip in Sutton, south-west London, according to The Sun.
In the tapes he also jokes about having ‘something to go with’ the water offered to him by officers and asks for a comb, before losing his temper.
Marked ‘John Cannan’, the videos were handed to The Sun on Sunday by a member of the public.
Police face questions over the garden excavation because they knew suspect had worked on the patio – because he admitted it himself 16 years ago in a letter from prison
Former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross asks whether police should be prioritising Suzy Lamplugh murder when suspect is already serving 35-year jail sentence
Former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross has spoken out about the investigation into the Suzy Lamplugh murder
Former Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross has asked whether police should be investigating historical crimes such as the Suzy Lamplugh case when the prime suspect ‘is already in prison’.
The presenter, who covered the case during his 23-year stretch hosting the BBC show, spoke after police launched a fresh search for the estate agent’s body in the garden which once belonged to the mother of her suspected killer, John Cannan.
Mr Ross has since questioned ‘the value’ of historical investigations and asked whether ‘we are using our police to focus on the most important things’.
Mr Ross covered the 25-year-old’s disappearance in 1986 on Crimewatch, appealing to viewers for information and presenting reconstructions of the day she died.
He said the case, which remains one of the UK’s most notorious cold cases, sparked a fevered and ‘ghoulish’ fascination largely in part because the victim was ‘female, pretty and middle class.’
Writing in The Telegraph, Ross adds: ‘It was a mystery of pure evil, with the added frisson that she might be being held alive, plus the ‘it-might-happen-to-us’ disquiet that an estate agent could be abducted by a potential customer.’
The presenter, who covered the case during his 23-year stretch hosting the BBC show (pictured), spoke after police launched a fresh search for the estate agent’s body in the garden which once belonged to the mother of her suspected killer, John Cannan
But the journalist has now raised questions about the role of police in investigating crimes and the priority given to such cases.
He adds: ‘Calls on the police service are expanding hugely as more of us report intimate offences such as sex crime, unacceptable behaviour like racism, or political priorities such as modern slavery.
‘Which begs the question: are we using our police to focus on the most important things?
‘No one is suggesting that a case like Suzy Lamplugh’s shouldn’t be investigated. But if we want kidnapping and homicide to have a high priority, what are we prepared to concede is low priority?’
Earlier this week, Cannan, who is serving 35 years for the 1987 murder of Shirley Banks, spoke for the first time since police started tearing up a patio he laid a year after Suzy was murdered 32 years ago.
After speaking to his client inside Full Sutton Prison, which contains some of Britain’s most notorious killers, his solicitor Matthew Claughton said: ‘John Cannan continues to deny involvement in the 1986 disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh.
‘Mr Cannan hopes that the search of his mother’s former home will conclude swiftly so as to bring to an end speculation as to his involvement in this matter.’
Estate agent Miss Lamplugh, 25, (pictured) disappeared in 1986, having left her West London offices to meet a mystery client known only as Mr Kipper
Cannan has no idea why the search has come now, with the development coming ‘out of the blue’, the solicitor added.
In an interview with The Mirror yesterday, Thomas Vale, whose sister June was married to Cannan for seven years, said: ‘He’s pure evil. We think he should rot for the rest of his life.’
He added: ‘He was a compulsive liar, shifty and flashy. I always thought there was something wrong with him.
‘He always looked like he had a secret. He had the eye of an evil person.’
Cannan is considered the ‘only suspect’ in Suzy’s murder and is believed to be the ‘Mr Kipper’ who abducted her while viewing a flat in Fulham, west London.
But a lack of a body and forensic evidence prevented a prosecution – but police are now ripping up the patio he laid at his mother Sheila’s former home a year after Suzy vanished.
Police, along with a private firm who hunted for Madeleine McCann, are now digging up the garden of a home once owned by Cannan’s mother.
Crews have dismantled an old garage and inspection pit which had been filled in with concrete, as well as lifting up patio paving slabs.
The home was purchased in 1992 from Mrs Cannan by the Carey family, who the Met stressed are in no way directly connected to the investigation.
In 2002 John Cannan was told he would not be prosecuted despite police claiming he was the only suspect in the case
This is the final diary entry by Suzy who wrote she was meeting Mr Kipper at 12.45pm on July 28 1986 but she never returned
The ten reasons why jailed killer John Cannan is the prime suspect
Mr Kipper’s efit – which looks like Cannan
1. John Cannan, a serial rapist and killer, was given the nickname ‘Kipper’ by bail hostel friends because he liked eating smelly fish and slept much of the day. Mr Kipper was the name of the man who met Suzy when she vanished.
2. He resembled a photofit of a man seen with Suzy when she disappeared 32 years ago.
3. Detectives learned that Cannan may have been the the ‘mystery man’ Suzy had a fling with.
4. Suzy had complained of being pestered by a man from Bristol, Cannan’s home city.
5. The former car salesman also had access to a BMW of the type thought to have been driven by ‘Mr Kipper’ to the estate agent appointment.
6. Three days before Suzy vanished Cannan was given day release after serving five years for rape. He also had a false alibi.
7. One witness suggested he was a stalker seen staring into Suzy’s Fulham estate agent’s window.
8. Another person claims he may have seen the convicted killer take her to a park for Champagne.
9. A taxi driver claimed the same day, in that area, a man clutching a Champagne bottle and estate agent papers hailed him.
10 Former girlfriend Gilly Paige claims her ex had joked he was ‘Mr Kipper’.
Police are facing more serious questions after it emerged Cannan admitted in a 2002 letter that he had laid the patio at his mother’s former home in Sutton Coldfield in the months after Suzy vanished – but it is now only being ripped up.
In 1987 Cannon beat to death Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks before dumping her naked body in a stream and was jailed for 35 years for her murder.
After his arrest his former international ice skater girlfriend Gilly Paige told police Cannan had told her he knew where Suzy was buried but it was not been followed up.
She had been seduced by the ‘absolutely gorgeous’ killer after meeting him in a Bristol hotel in May 1987 – ten months after Suzy vanished – after she returned from travelling in south-east Asia.
Cannan drove her from Bristol to Birmingham where she lived and appeared to give vital evidence about the murder – but she was confused because she had not heard of the case.
Cannan, 64, will not give up his secrets until the death of his mother, a close relative has said.
The killer fears increasing the anguish of his 96-year-old mother Sheila who is suffering from advanced dementia, his family said.
He has refused to discuss the estate agent’s 1986 disappearance with detectives who visited him behind bars, where he is serving a 35-year sentence for another murder.
But a close family member, who wishes not to be named, said the former car salesman may one day agree to reveal what he knows, if anything, about the notorious case.
Speaking last week, the relative said: ‘I don’t think he will say anything until his mother passes away. They were very close, she used to visit him in prison every week.
‘I don’t think he would want to bring all the attention back on to her while she is alive. He will wait until she is dead to reveal what happened.’