New witness could solve Suzy mystery
Man told police he saw suspect throw trunk into canal after she vanished
SUZY Lamplugh’s brother wants police to investigate new evidence that her body was dumped in a canal days after she went missing in 1986.
Richard Lamplugh, 61, believes that information revealed in a new documentary could finally lead to the discovery of his sister’s body.
He told the Mirror: “Even just to rule it out, it would be good to investigate. But if they found a body and it was Suze, then that would be very exciting.”
A witness believed he saw prime suspect John Cannan dumping a large wheeled trunk into a canal in West London three days after Suzy disappeared.
The documentary contains testimony from Anne, a friend of the witness, Dave, who died in 2008. Anne says Dave told her he saw Cannan as he walked to work along a towpath in Brentford in July 1986.
Anne says: “He saw a man coming towards him carrying a heavy load on wheels. The man put his face down – he wasn’t expecting to see anyone that early, it was five o’clock in the morning. “But Dave had to pass him, and as he passed he got a good look at his face. A few seconds later, Dave heard a splash, looked around and the man was running with nothing in his hand.” Dave reported it to his local police station, but it did not get relayed to the Met.
When Cannan’s picture was in the newspapers in 1989, ahead of his trial for the murder of Bristol woman Shirley Banks, Dave recognised him.
Anne says: “Dave said, ‘That’s the man I saw on the towpath.” He reported it a further two times to Brentford police, but the information still failed to reach the Lamplugh investigation teams.
Ex-officer Jim Dickie, on the case in
TRAGIC
Suzy, right, with sister Lizzie 2000, thinks it’s “very, very feasible” Dave saw Cannan dump Suzy’s body. He says: “It would meet his pattern of behaviour. He likes to dump bodies near water.”
Cannan was given three life sentences for murder and sex offences in 1989.
Suzy was 25 when she disappeared just three days after he was freed from a prison hostel in West London in July 1986, after serving five years for rape.
Estate agent Suzy went to meet a mysterious Mr Kipper for a house viewing and was never seen again.
Richard and his sisters Tamsin and Lizzie still dream of finding Suzy, who was declared legally dead in 1993.
Richard said: “It would be nice to bury Suze where we chose to bury her, rather than where he chose to bury her.”
The Mystery of Suzy Lamplugh, Sky Crime, tomorrow, 9pm and 10pm.
It would be nice to bury Suze where we chose to bury her, rather than where he chose to
RICHARD LAMPLUGH BROTHER OF MISSING ESTATE AGENT SUZY
GHISLAINE Maxwell is selling the London home where Prince Andrew was pictured clutching the bare waist of his teen sex accuser, to fund her defence against sex charges.
British socialite Maxwell is accused of helping her ex-boyfriend, paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, recruit girls to abuse.
She has been held without bail in a New York jail since her arrest in July.
The sale of the three-storey 19th-century mews house, in London’s Belgravia and minutes from the Royal Albert Hall, is nearly complete, family spokesman Brian Basham said.
He declined to reveal the buyer or price, but Zoopla values it at £1,923,000.
Maxwell, who has offered £20.5million to be released on bail, appears to have bought it for £290,000 in 1997. The Duke of York is accused of using it four years later to have sex with Epstein’s teen sex slave, Virginia Giuffre, then aged 17.
Ms Giuffre claims the pair had intercourse in the bathroom, which Andrew and his lawyers vehemently deny.
Of the alleged incident, she said in court papers: “Trying to do the best of my youthfulness to try and act seductive, I began to strip off my clothing, piece by piece. He loved every second of it as I went over to where he was watching, then began to undress him.
“He was adorning my young body, particularly my feet... It wasn’t hard to get him wound up to the point where he wanted the rest of me.” A picture from the night in 2001 shows Andrew, now 61, with his arm around Ms Giuffre’s waist. In an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, the Prince said while he recognises himself, it is impossible to prove whether the image had been faked.
Ms Giuffre insisted to BBC Panorama the photo was “authentic”.
The house reportedly has a large master bedroom, a galley kitchen and underground garage. The bathroom where Ms Giuffre claims they had sex is said to be “tiny”.
Reports in the US say the sale had hit problems with Maxwell’s bank. The Wall
Street Journal said a day after her lawyers deposited the buyer’s £130,000 first payment, Barclays shut her account.
A letter from the bank cited regulations barring customers from putting it in a situation where it “might break a law, regulation, code or duty”.
Mr Basham said the family could still complete the deal, without the account.
Before Epstein’s jail cell suicide in August 2019, Barclays chief executive Jes Staley counted the financier as a client when he was at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Last year, UK regulators opened an investigation into their relationship. Mr Staley insists it was strictly professional.
A Barclays spokesman said the bank could not discuss individual accounts.
He added: “The CEO would not be involved in decisions to close accounts.”
Trying to act seductive I began to strip off... He loved every second of it
VIRGINIA GIUFFRE ON HER ALLEGED ANDREW ENCOUNTER
US Editor DIVERS are searching for a British woman in the US Virgin Islands after she might have fallen overboard from a catamaran.
Sarm Heslop was last seen around 10pm on Sunday after returning from dinner on land to the craft that she and her American boyfriend worked on.
After watching Netflix, the couple went to bed. Her partner then woke at 2am on Monday to find Sarm gone.
The US Coast Guard said it was first alerted to her disappearance at 11.46am on Monday.
Her boyfriend, who has not been named, told them “his girlfriend may have fallen from their 47ft catamaran, Siren Song, the night before”.
Police and locals have been searching land and water off St John, the thirdlargest of the US Virgin Islands where the boat was moored. Former flight attendant, Sarm, 41, from Southampton, had arrived in the Caribbean after sailing across the Atlantic and stayed due to coronavirus restrictions.
Her best friend Andrew Baldwin said that her disappearance had left everyone who knew her “devastated”.
He said: “The locals have been fantastic, doing all they can to find Sarm.
“She is loved by everyone who knows her.
“Sarm’s sense of adventure took her to the Caribbean, and like wherever she goes, she had made many friends, all of whom are out looking for her.
“She is such a loving, fun girl. We just want her back safe and sound.” Divers from various agencies have searched hundreds of square feet of water for her. Volunteers are scouring the area around Cruz Bay and police say the search will continue.
She is loved by everyone who knows her, we just want her back safe
ANDREW BALDWIN BEST FRIEND OF MISSING SARM
THE man jailed for the White House Farm murders says he is “filled with hope” of release after submitting the latest legal challenge against his conviction.
Jeremy Bamber, 60, is serving a wholelife sentence for the 1985 killings of his adoptive parents Nevill and June, both 61, his sister Sheila Caffell, 26, and her six-year-old twins Daniel and Nicholas.
Bamber claims he has “multiple grounds” for an appeal, including evidence that his trial jury did not have the “full facts” and were “misled”.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission received his submission on Wednesday and will now decide whether the case should be referred to the Court of Appeal for a second time.
Mark Newby, Bamber’s solicitor, said: “Mr Bamber is going back to the CCRC because he got a significant amount of fresh evidence to show the conviction is unsafe. It is now for the CCRC to decide.”
The evidence is said to include records showing a call was made from Nevill Bamber’s phone to his son 10 minutes before Jeremy called the police.
Mr Newby said: “If, as a result of the fresh evidence, it is accepted there were two calls, including one call from his father and one from Jeremy, then it is an impossibility for Jeremy Bamber to have been at the scene at the relevant time to have committed the offences.” The lawyer said there were eight grounds for appeal, including claims Essex Police tampered with the scene and that officers saw signs of life inside the house while they were with Bamber outside.
Last year, ITV dramatised the killings in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, near Maldon, Essex, in a six-part series called White House Farm starring Freddie Fox.
Bamber claims that his adopted sister
DAILY MIRROR
He has got significant fresh evidence to show that his conviction is unsafe
MARK NEWBY LAWYER FOR CONVICTED MURDERER BAMBER
Sheila, who had schizophrenia, killed her family and then herself. Detectives accepted this version of events until relatives found a silencer at the farm that was said to contain her blood. Suspicions solidified when Bamber’s ex-girlfriend told police he had discussed killing his family.
The CCRC application is based on 347,000 pages of evidence that were recently released under a 30-year rule. It is the third time Bamber has sent an application to the CCRC, which refused to refer his case in 2012. The Court of Appeal also rejected a request for a hearing in 1989. Bamber was granted an appeal in 2002 after the case was referred by the CCRC, but it was later dismissed.