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Suzy Lamplugh’s family have begged for killer John Cannan to be kept in jail – as he whined to the Sunday Mirror that police were trying to block his freedom.

Cannan, 64 – the prime suspect in the estate agent’s 1986 disappearance – is eligible for release in 2022 after serving more than 30 years for the killing of factory worker Shirley Banks in 1987.

But he claims detectives have “smeared” him by repeatedly linking him to the suspected murder of Suzy, 25, who vanished after going to show a client only known as “Mr Kipper” around a house in London.

She was declared dead, presumed murdered, seven years after she went missing.

(Image: SWNS)

Speaking to us from his cell, Cannan said: “I am concerned that the police will use Suzy’s disappearance to undermine my parole prospects. My concern is that smearing me has become the rule not the exception.

“I had no involvement in the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh.”

Cannan, who says he suffers partial paralysis and needs to use a wheelchair following a stroke, claimed the Met were “determined to use me as a convenient peg to hang the disappearance upon”.

But Suzy’s brother Richard brushed aside the killer’s whines – and revealed Suzy’s family believe he murdered her.

“I don’t know Cannan but I don’t care for him at all,” said Richard, 59.

“He was convicted of the murder of another girl and I’d be happy for him to be kept in prison for as long as they need to.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

“He has never been prosecuted for my sister’s murder, but Cannan will tell us what happened to Suzy when he is ready.

“If he’s done it then I would like him to tell us her whereabouts and we can then bury her where we want to bury her, rather than where whoever killed her has buried her.

“We’ve been through so many developments you don’t get your hopes up.

“You accept what comes and if you find her so be it. Then we will have to cope with whatever comes of it.”

(Image: Peter Jolly <peterjolly9@gmail.com>)

Estate agent Suzy went missing in July 1986 after going to meet Mr Kipper – the entry in her diary – to show him around a house in Shorrolds Road, Fulham.

Her car, a white Ford Fiesta, was later found outside a property for sale in Stevenage Road about a mile and a half away.

The doors were unlocked, the handbrake was off and her purse was discovered in a side door pocket.

Police named Cannan as the prime suspect in Suzy’s disappearance and murder in 2002 – but prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Cold case detectives have staged a string of digs in recent years in the hunt for her remains, including a search of the garden at Cannan’s mother’s old home in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

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And last year VHS tapes of Metropolitan Police interviews with the killer were published after reportedly being discovered in a South London rubbish skip.

But Cannan insisted: “Being continuously linked to the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh has left me feeling puzzled and powerless because I had no involvement.

“I cannot disclose the whereabouts of Suzy Lamplugh because I didn’t kill her. I cannot tell people things I do not know.”

The former car salesman was given three life sentences for abducting and murdering Shirley Banks, 29, in Bristol in October 1987.

(Image: Francis Hawkins / SWNS.com)

She was held captive at his flat and forced to phone in sick to the factory where she worked as a textiles manager. Cannan killed her by hitting her head with a rock before he dumped her naked body at Dead Women’s Ditch in the Quantock Hills in Somerset.

He was also convicted of the attempted kidnap of Julia Holman the night before he snatched Shirley – and the rape of a woman in Reading a year earlier.

Cannan was handed a whole life tariff, later reduced to 35-year minimum.

Last night retired Det Supt Jim Dickie – who spent six years investigating Suzy’s abduction – said: “Cannan is still a suspect for the disappearance and murder of Suzy Lamplugh. There is no doubt about that at all. There have been a number of historical digs in and around areas which John Cannan frequented and knows. He obviously believes that he is going to get parole.

“If the Parole Board ever release Cannan into the general public again, the consequences of freeing a serial rapist and murderer must be on their heads.

“He’s extremely manipulative and must not be trusted.”

The 18 hours of VHS cassettes showing Cannan being interviewed in 2000 emerged last November.

In the videos – conducted over three days at Hammersmith police station – Cannan was asked point blank: “What have you done with her body?”

(Image: Birmingham Mail)

Clearly marked with the name John Cannan, the videos date from the Met’s Operation Phoebus — a re-investigation of the Lamplugh case.

Cannan told us: “As for my police interview tapes allegedly found in a skip, I lodged a formal complaint with the Metropolitan Police.

“Whatever the truth of the matter is, I doubt that the police investigation will resolve it.

(Image: PA)

“I do not have any confidence in the Metropolitan Police.”

Cannan was rushed to hospital after suffering a stroke in Category A HMP Full Sutton, East Yorks, earlier this year.

He complains that the stroke has left him “exhausted” all the time.

“It has caused me partial paralysis down my left hand side and played havoc with my balance,” he said.

“My memory has diminished. On the positive side, I write a lot and derive much pleasure doing so.”

When the Sunday Mirror approached Cannan’s lawyer, Matthew Claughton of Olliers Solicitors, he said they were continuing to support his denial of Suzy’s murder.