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Serial Killer Documentary - The House For Sale Rapist & Killer · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:06
Speaker 1: On the 8th of October, 1987, 29-year-old Shirley Banks went
0:11
Speaker 1: to a shopping center in Bristol, England, to buy a
0:14
Speaker 1: new dress. She would never be seen alive again.
0:19
Speaker 2: For weeks on end, it seemed that Shirley Banks had
0:23
Speaker 2: disappeared off the face of the earth.
0:25
Speaker 1: But Shirley hadn't vanished. She'd been abducted and murdered by
0:30
Speaker 1: a 33-year-old convicted rapist named John Canan.
0:35
Speaker 3: He had his mind set on abducting a woman and
0:38
Speaker 3: assaulting her and getting what he wanted from her, and
0:41
Speaker 3: nothing was going to stand in his way.
0:45
Speaker 1: Detectives investigating Shirley's disappearance were merely scratching the surface of
0:50
Speaker 1: Canaan's twisted past, a sexual predator hidden beneath a veneer
0:56
Speaker 1: of respectability.
0:59
Speaker 4: Well, I think apart from the physical side, I think
1:04
Speaker 4: somebody who's pleasant, who's natural, who's relaxed.
1:10
Speaker 5: Of all the murderers I've investigated, Canaan sticks out. He's
1:14
Speaker 5: a psychopath.
1:16
Speaker 6: Simple. Psychopath.
1:18
Speaker 1: John Canaan was about to be unmasked as one of
1:22
Speaker 1: the world's most evil killers. John Canan is something of
1:49
Speaker 1: an enigma. After being arrested for the murder of Shirley
1:53
Speaker 1: Banks in December 1987, he was charged with a number
1:57
Speaker 1: of offenses ranging from rape to GBH. He's never spoken
2:02
Speaker 1: of his crimes, but Canan is suspected of killing others.
2:06
Speaker 1: In 2002, he was named as the prime suspect in
2:11
Speaker 1: one of the most infamous unexplained disappearances in British history.
2:17
Speaker 5: Susie Lamplugh disappeared in July 1986 and was never heard
2:21
Speaker 5: of again, and her body has never been found, so
2:25
Speaker 5: the family have had no real closure.
2:29
Speaker 6: I read all the material that the review team.
2:32
Speaker 5: Had regarding John Canan's offending profile, And the more I
2:38
Speaker 5: read into it and the more I learned about the
2:40
Speaker 5: Lamplugh case, it became clearer and clearer to me that
2:44
Speaker 5: the one and only suspect was John Canan.
2:50
Speaker 1: Many of Canan's crimes were only discovered after his arrest
2:54
Speaker 1: for an attempted robbery in October 1987. TV producer Nick
2:59
Speaker 1: Shearman was working on the BBC Crimewatch programme at the
3:03
Speaker 1: time and forensically followed Canan's demise.
3:08
Speaker 7: There's no doubt that this case had a particularly strong
3:10
Speaker 7: effect on me. This was something that has happened in
3:13
Speaker 7: my area. I've lived in Bristol for years and years
3:16
Speaker 7: and years. I passed that house where he lived on
3:19
Speaker 7: a regular basis and it's very difficult to forget those
3:23
Speaker 7: things because the crimes were so appalling, really. If you
3:28
Speaker 7: rape someone, it's never going to go away for that
3:31
Speaker 7: person and it's not going to go away for those
3:35
Speaker 7: nearest and dearest to them. So Canaan has effectively put
3:39
Speaker 7: life sentences on a whole number of individuals, not just
3:44
Speaker 7: his immediate victims.
3:47
Speaker 1: Although convicted of offences against six women, including the murder
3:51
Speaker 1: of Shirley Banks, experts feel John Canaan still has a
3:56
Speaker 1: lot to answer for.
3:58
Speaker 5: I believe Canaan's committed many, many more sexual offences than
4:01
Speaker 5: he's ever been convicted of or that he's even suspected of.
4:08
Speaker 1: The killer's story begins in Sutton Coalfield, Warwickshire. John David
4:14
Speaker 1: Guise Canan was born on the 20th of February, 1954.
4:19
Speaker 1: The middle of three children, he was raised by a
4:22
Speaker 1: strict disciplinarian.
4:25
Speaker 6: He didn't get on with his father.
4:27
Speaker 7: There'd been lots of arguments and so on, and he
4:32
Speaker 7: very much orientated himself towards his mother. He had a
4:35
Speaker 7: very close relationship with his mother.
4:38
Speaker 1: Coming from an affluent background, Kanaan attended a private school
4:43
Speaker 1: where he claimed he was sexually assaulted by a teacher.
4:47
Speaker 1: And by the time he was a teenager, Kanaan himself
4:50
Speaker 1: was about to commit a similar offence.
4:53
Speaker 8: He commits his first sex crime at the age of 14.
4:58
Speaker 8: He assaults a woman in a phone box and he
5:02
Speaker 8: gets a year's probation.
5:05
Speaker 3: This is a very young age to be offending. And
5:08
Speaker 3: very often, people who engage in sexual assault-type behaviors, the
5:12
Speaker 3: first time that they're caught by the police is not
5:14
Speaker 3: the first time that they've engaged in this kind of behavior.
5:17
Speaker 3: So it would suggest that he'd been doing this kind
5:20
Speaker 3: of thing before then as well.
5:23
Speaker 1: After a short stint in the Merchant Navy, he went
5:27
Speaker 1: to work with his father in a car showroom.
5:28
Speaker 6: By 1980, 26-year-old Canan.
5:31
Speaker 1: Was married with a daughter, but that didn't stop him
5:38
Speaker 1: from becoming a self-proclaimed Lothario.
5:42
Speaker 3: Canaan really does like to make out that he's some
5:44
Speaker 3: kind of Romeo figure, that he's somebody who women fall
5:48
Speaker 3: over themselves for. So he will quote figures of having
5:52
Speaker 3: had over 101 nightstands. He likes to be this kind
5:57
Speaker 3: of character. Fundamentally, he's got a very strong narcissistic streak
6:01
Speaker 3: to him.
6:03
Speaker 6: He was a flirt.
6:04
Speaker 9: On one particular occasion, he was walking past an off-licence
6:08
Speaker 9: and he saw a beautiful girl in there and he
6:10
Speaker 9: went and bought some flowers and then went in and said,
6:14
Speaker 9: I'm having a rather nice party tonight. I'd like to
6:16
Speaker 9: buy a couple of bottles of wine. And he gave
6:19
Speaker 9: her these flowers and she was swept off her feet.
6:23
Speaker 8: There could be no denying he is extremely attractive to
6:27
Speaker 8: many women. But he is also absolutely dangerous to them.
6:34
Speaker 1: By December 1980, Kinnan had separated from his wife and
6:38
Speaker 1: was living with a new girlfriend. But after growing jealous
6:42
Speaker 1: of her relationship with her ex-husband, he flew into a rage.
6:48
Speaker 2: He launched an astonishingly vicious attack, strangling her, raping her,
6:54
Speaker 2: and subjecting her to a series of disgracefully humiliating sexual attacks.
7:02
Speaker 8: It's too painful almost to talk about. He sodomises her.
7:07
Speaker 8: It's a disgraceful, disgraceful attack. And she has to go
7:11
Speaker 8: to hospital. She's got internal injuries. I mean, she's suffered
7:16
Speaker 8: at the hands of a man whom she's invited into
7:19
Speaker 8: her house.
7:20
Speaker 9: She didn't make a complaint at that time because she
7:23
Speaker 9: was too terrified that he'd come back.
7:27
Speaker 1: Just three months after attacking his partner, John Canan was
7:32
Speaker 1: ready to take his sexual crimes to a new level.
7:36
Speaker 1: In March 1981, he had his sights set on the
7:40
Speaker 1: owner of a ladies' clothing shop in his hometown of
7:43
Speaker 1: Sutton Coalfield.
7:45
Speaker 2: He walked into the knitwear shop with a knife and
7:49
Speaker 2: held up the woman who was then behind the counter.
7:55
Speaker 1: And.
7:56
Speaker 8: The lady has got a 17-month-old child with her, and
8:00
Speaker 8: she happens to be pregnant.
8:03
Speaker 2: Before he could lock the door of the shop, in
8:05
Speaker 2: walks the woman's mother.
8:08
Speaker 3: So there are three generations of a family all within
8:12
Speaker 3: this same shop, and Kenan is threatening. He has a knife.
8:16
Speaker 3: He's a scary-looking individual. He can be incredibly overpowering and
8:21
Speaker 3: incredibly domineering, and he makes it very clear what he
8:24
Speaker 3: wants from this woman. And the grandmother pleads with him
8:28
Speaker 3: not to do this, don't do this in front of
8:31
Speaker 3: my grandchild. And she says, my daughter's pregnant, please don't
8:34
Speaker 3: do this.
8:37
Speaker 2: He subjects the woman to hideous sexual attacks, even though
8:41
Speaker 2: the baby is still there and is bawling his head off.
8:46
Speaker 2: In the midst of this, the husband phones the shop
8:51
Speaker 2: and John Conan panics and cuts the telephone line.
8:55
Speaker 1: Worried for his wife's safety, the pregnant woman's husband arrived
9:00
Speaker 1: at the shop and tried to force his way through
9:02
Speaker 1: the locked door. But Canan escaped out the back.
9:08
Speaker 2: Heavily traumatized, the victim is still able to give police
9:13
Speaker 2: a clear picture of the man who attacked her.
9:18
Speaker 8: And it doesn't take very long for there to be
9:20
Speaker 8: a perfectly good photo fit. constructed by the police, of Kanan,
9:26
Speaker 8: who's described as between 25 and 30, having dark eyes
9:30
Speaker 8: and eyebrows that meet above his nose.
9:35
Speaker 1: Within a week, police had found Kanan, despite an attempt
9:39
Speaker 1: to disguise himself by shaving between his distinctive eyebrows.
9:44
Speaker 7: After lengthy interviews about the case, denying it and denying it,
9:48
Speaker 7: he did eventually admit his guilt about that incident. And
9:53
Speaker 7: equally bizarrely, if not typically, he told the officers what
9:58
Speaker 7: a good job they'd done. I mean, he really was
10:01
Speaker 7: both pompous and patronising and had this veneer of arrogance
10:05
Speaker 7: about him.
10:07
Speaker 1: After serving five years of an eight-year sentence for his crimes,
10:12
Speaker 1: John Canan was released, but he was far from rehabilitated.
10:17
Speaker 1: In October 1986, he was in Reading with another victim
10:22
Speaker 1: in his sights.
10:23
Speaker 8: He attacks a woman who is sitting in a car
10:26
Speaker 8: reading a book quite late at night.
10:29
Speaker 7: And he came up to her, opened the window, asked
10:32
Speaker 7: for directions to a particular street.
10:35
Speaker 2: Do you know the way to Balfour Drive? She was
10:39
Speaker 2: about to say no, but then he said, oh, have
10:40
Speaker 2: you got an A to Z? And as she turned
10:42
Speaker 2: to look in the car for an A to Z,
10:45
Speaker 2: suddenly he was in there.
10:47
Speaker 1: Armed with a knife, Canaan put on a balaclava, drove
10:51
Speaker 1: the woman to a remote spot and raped her. He
10:54
Speaker 1: then wiped down the surfaces inside the car before calmly
10:58
Speaker 1: driving her back to where he had abducted her.
11:02
Speaker 8: Even more chillingly, as he abandons her, he says to her,
11:08
Speaker 8: with a slight smirk, take care and be good, but
11:13
Speaker 8: if you can't be good, be careful.
11:16
Speaker 1: But Canand hadn't been as thorough as he'd hoped. Forensic
11:23
Speaker 1: tests gave investigators a glimmer of hope in finding the rapist.
11:29
Speaker 2: The semen stains on the victim's clothing could only match
11:32
Speaker 2: Canand to a one in 2,000 chance, which is clearly
11:37
Speaker 2: insufficient to bring before a jury.
11:40
Speaker 7: So, unfortunately, they didn't have the forensics, they didn't have
11:43
Speaker 7: the ID.
11:45
Speaker 6: They had to.
11:49
Speaker 8: That rape, to some extent, gave Cannon the feeling that
11:53
Speaker 8: he was impregnable, that he was always capable of getting
11:58
Speaker 8: away with it.
12:00
Speaker 6: Every time they do it, it escalates.
12:02
Speaker 5: And in the end, they don't want to get caught
12:04
Speaker 5: because if they let the victims go, the victims become
12:08
Speaker 5: witnesses and they give evidence and then, of course, they
12:12
Speaker 5: get convicted and they get sent to prison. If you
12:15
Speaker 5: murder them, and you get away with it, you're scot-free.
12:20
Speaker 1: Feeling untouchable, John Canan was ready to strike again. On
12:26
Speaker 1: the 8th of October, 29-year-old newlywed Shirley Banks drove her
12:31
Speaker 1: orange Mini into Bristol town centre and headed to a
12:36
Speaker 1: department store.
12:37
Speaker 2: On that evening, she had plans to go shopping and
12:41
Speaker 2: possibly some drinks with her friends. In particular, she wanted
12:44
Speaker 2: to go to the Broadway... in the centre of Bristol,
12:48
Speaker 2: and she had an eye on a particular blue and
12:50
Speaker 2: white dress, which, when she bought it, was placed in
12:54
Speaker 2: a large Topshop bag, larger than normal for a dress
12:58
Speaker 2: of that size.
12:59
Speaker 1: Shirley left the shop at around 7.30pm, but she never
13:04
Speaker 1: arrived to meet her friends for a drink, nor did
13:07
Speaker 1: she return home.
13:10
Speaker 7: Her husband came home that night, knew she was going
13:13
Speaker 7: to be late, so didn't think anything of it. then
13:16
Speaker 7: went to the local pub, asked if they'd seen her,
13:19
Speaker 7: and they hadn't. I think he eventually fell asleep.
13:25
Speaker 2: The following morning, he phoned her work and was astonished
13:29
Speaker 2: to hear that she had phoned in that morning sick. Well,
13:35
Speaker 2: he knew that was wrong, that something was up.
13:38
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, Richard's instincts were correct. Shirley Banks had been abducted
13:45
Speaker 1: by John Canan.
13:47
Speaker 5: Shirley, I think, was forced into making that phone call.
13:50
Speaker 5: And this is pure supposition. And I think probably Shirley
13:53
Speaker 5: was fear of her life, probably went along with what
13:58
Speaker 5: he wanted initially, but obviously came to a point where
14:02
Speaker 5: she knew this was going to end badly.
14:06
Speaker 3: This would have been absolutely terrifying for Shirley because on
14:09
Speaker 3: a minute to minute basis, she's assessing the situation. She's
14:13
Speaker 3: figuring out what it is that she needs to do
14:15
Speaker 3: to keep herself safe, to keep herself alive. So absolutely
14:19
Speaker 3: horrifying situation to be in. From Kenan's perspective, on the
14:23
Speaker 3: other hand, he is loving this because he is 100%
14:25
Speaker 3: in control of what is going on. He has got
14:29
Speaker 3: a victim here who is perhaps pleading with him, perhaps
14:33
Speaker 3: begging for her life, complying with all of his instructions.
14:37
Speaker 3: So he's feeling quite good right now.
14:41
Speaker 1: On 9th October 1987, Richard Banks reported his wife as missing.
14:48
Speaker 2: The police were confronted with the fact that there was
14:51
Speaker 2: a missing woman, a woman who would almost certainly either
14:54
Speaker 2: be at home or at work, and is now clearly missing.
14:58
Speaker 2: She had an orange Mini Clubman, a very distinctive car,
15:02
Speaker 2: no sign of that either.
15:04
Speaker 6: Has she been abducted?
15:07
Speaker 1: Shirley had seemingly vanished into thin air. As the police
15:13
Speaker 1: exhausted all avenues, four days after her disappearance, a nationwide
15:18
Speaker 1: appeal was put out. Where was Shirley Banks?
15:24
Speaker 7: The police, you know, were getting nowhere, quite frankly. And
15:28
Speaker 7: so they came to Crime Watch. Initially, we did an
15:31
Speaker 7: incident desk on it, just really telling the basic story
15:34
Speaker 7: in a very short space of time. That didn't really
15:38
Speaker 7: produce very much either. As things gathered pace, they realised
15:42
Speaker 7: that they had a major investigation on their hands, and
15:47
Speaker 7: then they threw really everything into it. I mean, they
15:50
Speaker 7: even got the RAF to take infrared photographs of Lee
15:53
Speaker 7: Woods nearby, in case there was a body there. They
15:56
Speaker 7: did They did all sorts of things. But Shirley was
16:00
Speaker 7: nowhere to be found. One of the big issues for
16:04
Speaker 7: them as the case progressed was that they didn't have
16:07
Speaker 7: a body.
16:08
Speaker 1: As the hunt for Shirley continued, John Canan headed far
16:12
Speaker 1: away from the center of the investigation. 70 miles north
16:17
Speaker 1: of Bristol, he was hunting for another victim.
16:22
Speaker 2: Three weeks on from Shirley Banks going missing, no sign
16:25
Speaker 2: of her at all. John Canaan moves his focus of
16:29
Speaker 2: attention away from Bristol to Leamington Spa, close to Sutton Caulfield,
16:35
Speaker 2: an area he knows particularly well. There's a shop called Ginger.
16:40
Speaker 2: John Canaan enters the shop, and this is an eerie
16:43
Speaker 2: reflection of what happened in 1981. Six years later, John
16:47
Speaker 2: Canaan is similarly intent on rape.
16:52
Speaker 7: You can see certain patterns and certain things recurring, and
16:55
Speaker 7: at Leamington Spa, he once again went into a ladies'
16:58
Speaker 7: dress shop and held a woman at knife point.
17:02
Speaker 1: Wearing a motorcycle helmet to hide his identity, Canaan's actions
17:07
Speaker 1: seemed to echo the horrific attack of his past.
17:12
Speaker 3: I think Canaan was convinced that once he had made
17:15
Speaker 3: his way into that shop and he had threatened the
17:17
Speaker 3: women inside it, that he was going to be able
17:19
Speaker 3: to rape and sexually assault one or both of them.
17:23
Speaker 3: But one of the women, when she went to lock
17:25
Speaker 3: the door, as Canan had instructed her to do, used
17:28
Speaker 3: that as an opportunity to actually flee the shop.
17:32
Speaker 2: Canan, unsuccessful in his attempts, dashes for the door to
17:36
Speaker 2: make good his escape.
17:38
Speaker 9: But John Canan should have run a lot faster than
17:41
Speaker 9: he did because two or three guys walking down the
17:45
Speaker 9: street heard these girls scream. They saw Canan running away,
17:48
Speaker 9: and they chased him. And after a cat-and-mouse chase around
17:52
Speaker 9: Leamington Spa, the police pounced, and they got him.
17:59
Speaker 1: John Canan was finally behind bars, but detectives had no
18:04
Speaker 1: idea they'd arrested the man who was responsible for the
18:07
Speaker 1: disappearance of Shirley Banks just three weeks earlier.
18:12
Speaker 2: Warwickshire Police thought they had in custody an armed robber.
18:18
Speaker 2: When they arrested him, they found the car keys, which
18:20
Speaker 2: was a BMW parked near the ginger shop. What they
18:23
Speaker 2: had no idea was what was inside that car. It
18:27
Speaker 2: was an absolute treasure trove of evidence involving handcuffs and
18:32
Speaker 2: rope and an imitation gun. But most importantly, it had
18:36
Speaker 2: the tax disc from Shirley Banks' car.
18:42
Speaker 3: Now, why is he holding on to this? Because it's
18:44
Speaker 3: a piece of incredibly incriminating evidence. I don't think he
18:48
Speaker 3: ever thought he was going to get caught, so he
18:50
Speaker 3: wasn't really thinking about the implications of it. He'd kept
18:54
Speaker 3: this tax disc as a memento, as something to remember
18:58
Speaker 3: this crime by.
19:00
Speaker 1: Also in the car was a large Topshop bag, similar
19:04
Speaker 1: to the one Shirley had been given when she bought
19:07
Speaker 1: her new dress on that fateful night. Aware that Shirley
19:12
Speaker 1: Banks was currently missing, Wallachshire police contacted their colleagues in Bristol. Finally,
19:19
Speaker 1: investigators had a breakthrough in the case.
19:22
Speaker 7: Avon and Somerset police drove up to Leamington Spa the
19:25
Speaker 7: evening of the next day, and they drove him back
19:30
Speaker 7: to Bristol that same night. Canan spent the whole time talking.
19:36
Speaker 7: Most people now just say no comment, but he insisted
19:40
Speaker 7: on talking endlessly in the back seat of the car,
19:43
Speaker 7: kind of justifying himself and explaining what kind of a
19:47
Speaker 7: man he was.
19:49
Speaker 5: Hello?
19:50
Speaker 1: Had also found another major piece of the puzzle at
19:53
Speaker 1: Canaan's Bristol home, Shirley Banks's distinctive car.
20:00
Speaker 8: The orange Mini Clubman is found in the lock-up garages
20:05
Speaker 8: beneath Foy House, where Canaan is living. It's been painted blue, hand-painted,
20:11
Speaker 8: it's not been sprayed, and he's changed the number plate.
20:16
Speaker 2: As soon as Jean Calan is questioned, he denies any
20:20
Speaker 2: connection with Shirley Banks whatsoever, claims he'd never met her
20:23
Speaker 2: at all. He came up with this wonderful creative account
20:27
Speaker 2: of how he had bought this car in good faith
20:30
Speaker 2: at an auction.
20:32
Speaker 3: So he makes up this narrative, I bought it at
20:35
Speaker 3: a car auction, But he didn't actually know where Bristol
20:38
Speaker 3: Car Auction was. He had to actually ask one of
20:41
Speaker 3: the police officers this. So it's starting to fall apart
20:45
Speaker 3: at this point in time. His level of arrogance is
20:48
Speaker 3: still incredibly high and he thinks he's going to get
20:50
Speaker 3: away with stuff. But the police are noticing all of
20:53
Speaker 3: these little holes in his story.
20:55
Speaker 1: John Canan's web of lies was unravelling at rapid speed.
21:00
Speaker 1: Detectives were certain he was responsible for the disappearance of
21:04
Speaker 1: Shirley Banks, but they were desperate for some concrete evidence.
21:09
Speaker 1: They had just 36 hours before they'd have to release him.
21:14
Speaker 6: The clock was ticking.
21:16
Speaker 1: As detectives continued to search Canaan's Bristol home, they discovered
21:21
Speaker 1: an eerie video for a dating agency, filmed just six
21:25
Speaker 1: weeks earlier.
21:30
Speaker 4: I think apart from the physical side, again, I think
21:37
Speaker 4: somebody who's pleasant, who's natural, who's relaxed.
21:43
Speaker 9: He presents as a very suave, a very charming, flashing
21:49
Speaker 9: his eyes at this woman who's interviewing him. You know,
21:53
Speaker 9: I'm looking for somebody as intelligent as me, and, well,
21:56
Speaker 9: you know, I've got a beautiful flat, and it's all dull,
22:00
Speaker 9: and it's so oily and slimy, and you look at
22:04
Speaker 9: his facial expressions, and you can see, when you know
22:09
Speaker 9: what to look for, shallowness.
22:12
Speaker 4: Yes, I have a dislike of inflated egos.
22:18
Speaker 6: People who are.
22:20
Speaker 4: They look at me, I'm a great type... I don't
22:23
Speaker 4: like that. I just like normal, average people.
22:27
Speaker 7: When you look at that video, you look at his
22:29
Speaker 7: eyes and you think, God, there's something strange about this man.
22:34
Speaker 7: And he is sort of riveting in an appalling way.
22:38
Speaker 7: And you could see that he could be charming to women,
22:42
Speaker 7: but at the same time, there's something really deadly about
22:46
Speaker 7: those eyes.
22:48
Speaker 8: It is genuinely terrifying. because you know that this man
22:53
Speaker 8: is capable and has already been capable of the most
22:57
Speaker 8: profound violence towards women.
22:59
Speaker 4: I'm in a sedimentary period where financially and career-wise I've
23:04
Speaker 4: achieved what I've wanted to achieve. I'm just now looking
23:06
Speaker 4: for the next thing to achieve.
23:09
Speaker 5: That is Walter Mitty. John Canaan, Walter Mitty. He purports
23:15
Speaker 5: to be what he's not. He calls himself a successful businessman...
23:20
Speaker 5: who's got businesses in Bristol. He's looking for a profile
23:24
Speaker 5: of a young lady, and he waxes lyrical, and the
23:29
Speaker 5: arrogance of the man is just unbelievable.
23:35
Speaker 1: Detectives needed more time to find evidence. They charged Canan
23:40
Speaker 1: with the assault and attempted robbery in Leamington Spa. This
23:44
Speaker 1: brought them another 72 hours to question him about Shirley Banks.
23:50
Speaker 1: Investigators had another avenue to explore, a nearby attack on
23:55
Speaker 1: the 7th of October, 1987, just 24 hours before Shirley's disappearance.
24:03
Speaker 2: A woman called Julia Holman was having a drink with
24:05
Speaker 2: friends and then went off to her car. It was
24:08
Speaker 2: about half past six and in October it was dark,
24:11
Speaker 2: but this was towards the center of Bristol.
24:16
Speaker 7: As she got into the car, Canaan approached her with
24:20
Speaker 7: a gun and threatened her.
24:24
Speaker 2: Now, Julia Holman reacted spectacularly swiftly that her reactions almost
24:30
Speaker 2: certainly saved her life. Instead of being paralyzed with fear,
24:34
Speaker 2: her reaction was to strike out with her arm and
24:38
Speaker 2: with her leg, slam the car door, screaming as she did,
24:42
Speaker 2: and then speed off as fast as she could.
24:45
Speaker 1: Canaan was an immediate suspect. On the 5th of November,
24:50
Speaker 1: an ID parade was arranged. Julia Holman would once again
24:55
Speaker 1: come face-to-face with her attacker.
24:58
Speaker 8: Canan is put in a row. He's number three in
25:02
Speaker 8: the identity parade. Julia Holman identifies him instantly. It's number three.
25:11
Speaker 6: That is.
25:12
Speaker 7: immediately really helped to nail that he was the man
25:16
Speaker 7: responsible for the attack on Julia Holman the day before.
25:19
Speaker 7: So the evidence was building up.
25:22
Speaker 1: Charging Canan with the attempted abduction of Julia bought detectives
25:26
Speaker 1: more time. But by the 10th of November, they were
25:30
Speaker 1: out of options. They decided they had enough evidence to
25:34
Speaker 1: charge John Canan with the kidnap of Shirley Banks, but
25:38
Speaker 1: not her murder. However, their luck was about to change.
25:45
Speaker 7: He had this sort of monk's chest with all sorts
25:47
Speaker 7: of papers in his flat, and forensics, obviously, back in
25:51
Speaker 7: those days, were quite slow. But finally, they discovered a fingerprint.
25:57
Speaker 1: It was possible that this unknown fingerprint could belong to
26:01
Speaker 1: Shirley Banks, but they didn't have her prints on record
26:05
Speaker 1: to cross-check it. Fortunately, the forensic team had an ace
26:11
Speaker 1: up their sleeve.
26:13
Speaker 10: The fingerprint officers were able to examine Shirley Banks' house
26:17
Speaker 10: and produce a composite set of finger marks from items
26:22
Speaker 10: that she would touch in the normal course of her life.
26:26
Speaker 10: So common items, things like long playing record covers, cassettes,
26:31
Speaker 10: and actually build up a set of composites from those
26:34
Speaker 10: frequently handled items. which would then be compared against the mark,
26:39
Speaker 10: the image that was recovered from Canan's address. It proved
26:43
Speaker 10: that connection. It proved that she'd actually been in the
26:46
Speaker 10: house at the time.
26:51
Speaker 1: There was now no doubt that Shirley Banks had been
26:54
Speaker 1: inside John Canan's home. Worried that the wily 33-year-old would
26:59
Speaker 1: try and wriggle his way out of the accusation, detectives
27:03
Speaker 1: knew they had to be one step ahead.
27:06
Speaker 2: So, cleverly, they take John Canan to the scene and
27:11
Speaker 2: say to him, you know, has Shirley Banks ever been
27:14
Speaker 2: in your flat?
27:15
Speaker 6: Answer, no.
27:15
Speaker 2: Well, here, this is some of the things we found
27:18
Speaker 2: in your flat.
27:19
Speaker 6: Are they yours? Yes.
27:22
Speaker 2: Showed him the document.
27:24
Speaker 6: Is this yours?
27:25
Speaker 2: Yes. Did this document ever leave your flat? Answer, no.
27:31
Speaker 2: How do you explain Shirley Banks' thumbprint is on it?
27:35
Speaker 2: It was a clever series of events to make him
27:38
Speaker 2: admit everything before they played the trump card.
27:42
Speaker 1: On the 23rd of December, 1987, John Canan was charged
27:47
Speaker 1: with the murder of Shirley Banks, but investigators hadn't found
27:52
Speaker 1: her body, and Canan was still denying everything.
27:56
Speaker 5: There are cases where somebody's been convicted of a murder
28:00
Speaker 5: with no body, and there are some very good instances
28:05
Speaker 5: of that over the years, but it makes it difficult
28:09
Speaker 5: for the investigators. You know, you can have all the
28:13
Speaker 5: evidence in the world, but if you haven't got a
28:15
Speaker 5: cause of death, you can't say it's murder with any certainty.
28:21
Speaker 1: On the 3rd of April 1988, a woman foraging in
28:25
Speaker 1: the eerily and aptly named Dead Woman's Ditch in Somerset
28:30
Speaker 1: made a grisly discovery. Six months after she disappeared, the
28:36
Speaker 1: body of Shirley Banks had finally been found.
28:40
Speaker 2: The body was naked, decomposed as you'd imagine, and alongside it,
28:44
Speaker 2: they found elements of her jewelry and also fibers and
28:49
Speaker 2: parts of the blue and white dress that she had
28:52
Speaker 2: bought from Topshop.
28:57
Speaker 5: In Shirley's case, she was battered about the head could
29:02
Speaker 5: have been something like a baseball bat or a heavy
29:06
Speaker 5: boulder or rock or something like that, you know, trauma
29:09
Speaker 5: to the head, which causes severe bleeding, and that would
29:13
Speaker 5: have been the cause of death.
29:16
Speaker 1: With confirmation that Shirley had indeed been murdered, investigators continued
29:21
Speaker 1: to build their case against John Canan.
29:25
Speaker 5: So the forensic evidence is mounting up. All the bits
29:31
Speaker 5: are falling into place. all the other police forces where
29:37
Speaker 5: the other serial sex offences have taken place. place, notify
29:42
Speaker 5: Avon and Somerset and they follow it up.
29:46
Speaker 1: Further investigations led to charges being filed against Canan, ranging
29:51
Speaker 1: from assault and GBH to theft and murder. Detectives in
29:56
Speaker 1: Reading also reopened an unsolved rape case from 1986. DNA
30:03
Speaker 1: had come on in leaps and bounds in just a
30:06
Speaker 1: couple of years.
30:09
Speaker 10: We'd had advances in procedures to extract and recover DNA,
30:14
Speaker 10: so it was far more discriminating.
30:17
Speaker 7: And so they went back and they got forensics to
30:20
Speaker 7: reanalyse the semen stains they'd picked up from the ladies' clothing.
30:25
Speaker 7: When they'd done the original match two years before, they
30:28
Speaker 7: said there was a one in 2,000 chance of it
30:31
Speaker 7: being Canaan's semen. Now it was one in 260 million chance.
30:39
Speaker 2: So with great pleasure, police were now able to charge
30:43
Speaker 2: John Canaan for the first time with the Reading rape.
30:51
Speaker 1: At his trial at Exeter Crown Court in April 1989,
30:56
Speaker 1: John Canan was charged with 16 different offences, including the
31:00
Speaker 1: 1987 murder of Shirley Banks, the Reading rape in 1986,
31:06
Speaker 1: and even the assault on his ex-partner in 1980, who
31:10
Speaker 1: felt brave enough to come forward almost a decade later.
31:15
Speaker 7: It was very unusual for a judge to accept more
31:19
Speaker 7: than one previous offence. allegation charge, and a number of
31:24
Speaker 7: charges were tried at the same time by the same
31:28
Speaker 7: jury in this particular case, and the judge allowed it.
31:33
Speaker 1: On the 28th of April, 1989, John Canan faced the
31:37
Speaker 1: jury's verdict.
31:38
Speaker 2: I have to say, having sat there in court that day,
31:43
Speaker 2: I believe he thought he would get away with it,
31:45
Speaker 2: even though the weight of the evidence in that trial
31:48
Speaker 2: was clearly going in one direction. but he thought he
31:52
Speaker 2: would still get away with it. John Canan looked stunned
31:57
Speaker 2: by the first verdict. Once the first verdict of guilty,
32:01
Speaker 2: which was the sex attack on his ex-girlfriend, he knew
32:05
Speaker 2: that the rest, like dominoes, would just fall in the
32:08
Speaker 2: same direction.
32:10
Speaker 1: John Canan was found guilty and told he would spend
32:14
Speaker 1: life behind bars.
32:17
Speaker 2: The judge, Mr Justice Drake, described him as vile and evil, violent, horrible,
32:26
Speaker 2: beneath his veneer of charm in a very telling statement.
32:31
Speaker 2: He also said this man should never be put at liberty.
32:35
Speaker 2: He made it quite clear that he intended that this
32:38
Speaker 2: man should have a life means life tariff.
32:41
Speaker 1: Safely locked away in prison, John Canaan was no longer
32:45
Speaker 1: a threat to women, but his story was far from over.
32:52
Speaker 1: Since his incarceration, he's been linked to a number of
32:56
Speaker 1: unsolved cases. But his unwillingness to cooperate with police inquiries
33:01
Speaker 1: has led to many investigations reaching a dead end.
33:06
Speaker 3: I have no doubt that there are other victims of Canaan,
33:09
Speaker 3: whether those are women he's killed, whether they're women he's
33:12
Speaker 3: raped and sexually assaulted. I don't believe that he will
33:16
Speaker 3: ever reveal details of them that would lead to a conviction.
33:20
Speaker 3: I think he's going to sprinkle a few details here
33:23
Speaker 3: and there. He's going to drop a few hints because
33:25
Speaker 3: he quite enjoys toying with people.
33:28
Speaker 6: In that way.
33:30
Speaker 1: Possible links have been explored between Canan and the unsolved
33:34
Speaker 1: murder of 27-year-old Sandra Court in Bournemouth in May 1986.
33:40
Speaker 1: And he remains the prime suspect for one of Britain's
33:44
Speaker 1: most infamous cold cases, the disappearance of Susie Lamplew.
33:50
Speaker 5: Susie was last seen on the morning of 28th of July, 1986.
33:55
Speaker 5: She turned up for work. It was a Monday morning
33:59
Speaker 5: in Sturgis' estate agents in Fulham Road. And in her diary,
34:04
Speaker 5: she had an appointment with a Mr. Kipper for later
34:07
Speaker 5: that morning.
34:08
Speaker 6: She subsequently.
34:10
Speaker 5: left the estate agents, got into the company car and
34:15
Speaker 5: drove to view a house in Cheryl's Road and another
34:19
Speaker 5: one near Bishop's Park in Fulham.
34:23
Speaker 6: And she never returned. And she's never been seen or
34:26
Speaker 6: heard of since.
34:29
Speaker 1: From the day that 25-year-old Susie went missing, her brother
34:33
Speaker 1: Richard has experienced a whole range of emotions.
34:38
Speaker 11: As a someone who's missing, you don't want to look
34:42
Speaker 11: at it and sort of think, oh, she's dead. Or, oh, she's,
34:46
Speaker 11: you know, you always want to think positively and feel positive.
34:50
Speaker 11: And so you want to always keep your hopes up
34:55
Speaker 11: that she might just walk through the door. And that's
34:58
Speaker 11: what I felt. I didn't feel like it was time
35:01
Speaker 11: to grieve or anything. It wasn't time to miss her.
35:04
Speaker 11: I just wanted a happy outcome. You get to the
35:08
Speaker 11: stage where You know, after maybe two months, you sort
35:12
Speaker 11: of think, oh, maybe she's not coming, you know, maybe
35:15
Speaker 11: that is it. So I felt myself, I was trying
35:20
Speaker 11: to keep my hopes up all the time, which is
35:23
Speaker 11: quite exhausting in a way, but I think it's a
35:26
Speaker 11: way of sort of coping with it.
35:31
Speaker 1: By 1999, when Jim Dickey took over the investigation, the
35:35
Speaker 1: Susie Lamplugh case had gone unsolved. for 13 years.
35:41
Speaker 5: The original investigation petered out after a number of years.
35:47
Speaker 5: Everything that could be followed up, that was obvious, had
35:50
Speaker 5: been followed up. It wasn't put away, as we say
35:53
Speaker 5: in police parlance, i.e. it's filed away and, you know,
35:58
Speaker 5: is left to gather dust. That wasn't done. It was
36:00
Speaker 5: still an open inquiry, but just no one was actually
36:04
Speaker 5: working on it.
36:06
Speaker 1: Jim believes that John Canan attacked Susie just after he'd
36:10
Speaker 1: been freed from serving five years in prison for the
36:13
Speaker 1: rape of the pregnant mother in her knitwear shop.
36:17
Speaker 5: He was released from prison on the 26th of July.
36:21
Speaker 5: Susie went missing on the 28th of July. And we
36:24
Speaker 5: have witnesses that put Canan staring into the estate agent's
36:30
Speaker 5: window on the Sunday, the 27th. We have a cab
36:34
Speaker 5: driver witness who dropped John Canaan in Fulham Broadway on
36:39
Speaker 5: the 28th. Two witnesses compiled an e-fit with a police officer,
36:46
Speaker 5: and that.
36:47
Speaker 6: Picture, if you looked at it today.
36:49
Speaker 5: And it was published in all the media, you would say,
36:53
Speaker 5: looking at a photograph of John Canaan, that was John Canaan.
36:58
Speaker 1: During the investigation into the disappearance of Shirley Banks, who
37:02
Speaker 1: Canan murdered in 1987, her mini was discovered at his home.
37:08
Speaker 1: It had been repainted, and the registration number had been changed.
37:12
Speaker 1: It was this alteration that piqued many people's interests.
37:18
Speaker 6: SLP 386S. There is a theory.
37:22
Speaker 5: Susie Lamplew, third victim of 86... That's one school of thought.
37:28
Speaker 5: Another school of thought, it could be a map reference
37:32
Speaker 5: for the deposition of a body on an ordnance survey map. Now,
37:36
Speaker 5: whether that is right or not, I don't know, but
37:39
Speaker 5: it's pretty close to where Shirley Banks' body was recovered,
37:44
Speaker 5: which is near Dead Woman's Ditch in the Quantocks in Somerset.
37:48
Speaker 1: In December 2000, officers from Jim Dickey's team had the
37:53
Speaker 1: opportunity to interview John Canan in prisons. Throughout the interrogation,
37:58
Speaker 1: the 46-year-old killer maintained his composure.
38:03
Speaker 5: He was quite quick-witted, I'll give him that, because when
38:07
Speaker 5: we interviewed him, what he does, and we knew this
38:11
Speaker 5: because we researched it, that he would try and turn
38:14
Speaker 5: the interview in its head so that he's asking you
38:17
Speaker 5: questions as opposed to us asking him.
38:20
Speaker 6: And we were prepared for that. We knew that. We
38:23
Speaker 6: knew he was going to do that. And what did
38:24
Speaker 6: he do?
38:24
Speaker 5: He did exactly that. But if you look at his
38:27
Speaker 5: body language on the video, it says it all. Some
38:30
Speaker 5: questions he did not have an answer for, and he
38:33
Speaker 5: was very, very uncomfortable.
38:35
Speaker 4: And as far as I'm concerned, Sam, it's very simple.
38:39
Speaker 4: If something looks like a duck, wobbles like a duck,
38:42
Speaker 4: and cracks like a duck, I think we can say,
38:45
Speaker 4: what can a duck do?
38:49
Speaker 3: You often find him saying these cryptic things to people
38:52
Speaker 3: and these things that are supposed to get people going, what?
38:56
Speaker 3: And that is because he enjoys being in control. He
39:00
Speaker 3: likes to be the one who's pulling the strings.
39:02
Speaker 6: It's a crime. I've done many things wrong in my life.
39:05
Speaker 4: Things that, believe me, I am genuinely sorry for. One
39:09
Speaker 4: or two things I haven't been caught for.
39:16
Speaker 1: John Canan has always denied any involvement in the disappearance
39:20
Speaker 1: of Susie Lamplew. Without a body and with no forensic evidence,
39:25
Speaker 1: the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was not enough evidence
39:29
Speaker 1: to prosecute. But in November 2002, the Metropolitan Police announced
39:36
Speaker 1: they weren't looking for anyone else in connection with the case.
39:40
Speaker 6: There are people who know things if they came forward.
39:43
Speaker 2: We would only need a small amount of fresh evidence
39:45
Speaker 2: now to.
39:47
Speaker 6: Bring what we believe would be a credible prosecution.
39:51
Speaker 11: I was there at the press conference, and yes, it
39:55
Speaker 11: was unprecedented for them to do this, but there was
40:01
Speaker 11: the only course of action that they could take. It
40:04
Speaker 11: does seem like he's got away with it. He obviously
40:07
Speaker 11: hasn't been prosecuted for my sister's murder, but it all
40:12
Speaker 11: seems the roads, as they say, all seem to.
40:15
Speaker 6: Lead to him.
40:18
Speaker 1: In 2018, police excavated the garden at Canan's mother's former home.
40:25
Speaker 1: They'd received information that Canan laid a new patio in
40:28
Speaker 1: the months following Susie's disappearance and hoped to have finally
40:32
Speaker 1: found her. Nothing was uncovered.
40:38
Speaker 2: In my view, John Canan will take the secrets of
40:40
Speaker 2: Susie Lamplugh's death to his grave. I cannot see him.
40:46
Speaker 2: opening up and admitting that he had anything to do
40:49
Speaker 2: with it or showing any remorse about what happened at all.
40:52
Speaker 2: I have nothing but contempt for this man.
40:59
Speaker 11: I would love to bury Suze where we want as
41:01
Speaker 11: a family to bury her rather than where he has
41:06
Speaker 11: buried her.
41:09
Speaker 1: Although Canan was sentenced to life in prison, he is
41:12
Speaker 1: due for parole in the near future. after serving 35
41:17
Speaker 1: years behind bars.
41:22
Speaker 7: You just hope and pray that they don't let this
41:24
Speaker 7: man out, because I think it would be a horrific
41:28
Speaker 7: situation if they were to let him out. Because really,
41:32
Speaker 7: you know, this is a man who should not be
41:35
Speaker 7: at large in society.
41:38
Speaker 5: He sees himself as of superior intelligence, intellect, and the
41:43
Speaker 5: rest of us are just plebs. We might be plebs
41:46
Speaker 5: in his eyes, but he's an arrogant serial sex offender,
41:50
Speaker 5: and if he's ever released from prison, God knows what
41:53
Speaker 5: he will do.
41:56
Speaker 1: For now, John Canan remains behind bars, a convicted rapist
42:01
Speaker 1: and murderer who ruined so many lives. The pain he
42:05
Speaker 1: inflicted not just on Shirley Banks but on her family
42:09
Speaker 1: should never be forgotten.
42:12
Speaker 7: I have four kids of my own. I cannot think
42:15
Speaker 7: what it's like to have to bury your child and
42:19
Speaker 7: to do it under those circumstances and to have lived
42:22
Speaker 7: through a period when her body hadn't been found as
42:26
Speaker 7: well is just utterly, utterly appalling. I think in all
42:30
Speaker 7: of this we shouldn't forget the broad range of victims
42:35
Speaker 7: of Canaan. because it's not just those individuals who were victims.
42:40
Speaker 7: All sorts of members of their families were victims too.
42:44
Speaker 7: They were all victims of John Canaan.
42:50
Speaker 1: Canaan is a violent sexual predator. He's displayed no remorse
42:55
Speaker 1: for any of his crimes, from raping a pregnant woman
42:58
Speaker 1: in front of her own mother and child, to killing
43:02
Speaker 1: a newlywed for nothing more than his own self-gratification. Hiding
43:06
Speaker 1: behind the veneer of a suave businessman, John Canaan thought
43:11
Speaker 1: he was God's gift to women. But in fact, he
43:14
Speaker 1: was the devil in disguise and undoubtedly one of the
43:19
Speaker 1: world's most evil killers.