Lamplugh suspect says police acted wrongly

Lawyers acting for John Cannan, a convicted murderer, criticised detectives yesterday for naming him as the "only suspect" in the murder of the missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh.

In a statement issued on Cannan's instructions, the lawyers provided no information to dispel suspicions that he killed Ms Lamplugh. But they said he was devastated and distressed by Scotland Yard's suggestions that he was playing "mind games" over the murder of Ms Lamplugh, who disappeared in 1986 after going to show a man calling himself Mr Kipper a house in Fulham, west London.

Olliers, the Manchester-based solicitors, indicated that they had made formal protests to the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the way that Cannan was named earlier this month as the "only suspect", despite the fact that Treasury counsel had advised against charging him.

Cannan, 48, is serving life for the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1986. He was taken to the area of Ms Lamplugh's disappearance for interview when the case was reopened earlier this year, but offered no insight.

Suspicions stem from the fact that Cannan was released from jail, where his nickname was Kipper, four days before Ms Lamplugh disappeared. Police in the first inquiry failed to act on information provided by Ms Lamplugh's parents, who revealed that their daughter had been pestered by a man claiming he was a businessman from Bristol. This was the modus operandi Cannan had used in attacks.

But Cannan's solicitor, Matthew Claughton, said he had not been told in advance of the announcement by the CPS on 5 November that it had decided not to charge Cannan. He also criticised police over an "unprecedented" appeal on television for more information at the same time as they named Cannan as prime suspect.

Mr Claughton said Cannan was "absolutely devastated. He is particularly distressed at ... the inference that he could at least have the decency to tell the Lamplugh family where Suzy's body is buried," said Mr Claughton. "John Cannan is not playing mind games. He cannot tell the Lamplugh family where their daughter is buried because he did not kill her."