The prime suspect in the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh should never have been named by police because there is “not a shred of evidence” linking him to the crime, according to the the author of a new book.

John Cannan, a serial rapist and convicted murderer, was identified by detectives in 2002 as the likely killer of the 25-year-old estate agent who went missing in Fulham in 1986.

The convicted rapist, who was released from a hostel at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, three days before Lamplugh’s disappearance, resembled an e-fit of a suspect spotted close to a property Lamplugh had been showing as an agent.

However, a new book ‘Finding Suzy’, written by a former Scotland Yard detective – who spent five years researching the case – claims there is no actual firm evidence linking Cannan to the disappearance.

David Videcette, who interviewed dozens of original witnesses, believes Scotland Yard’s focus on Cannan for the last two decades has resulted in many missed opportunities to find the real killer and even recover Lamplugh’s body.

Videcette said: “Like most people, I originally believed that Cannan must have been responsible for Suzy Lamplugh’s disappearance and murder, because that is the narrative that has been perpetuated by the police and in the media over the past few decades.

“Yet, despite interviewing more than a hundred people, including colleagues, friends and police from both the first and second investigations – I failed to find a single shred of evidence that John Cannan even knew Suzy, let alone murdered her.

“Cannan provided alibi witnesses to the police, which were accepted during the 1980s and through to the mid-nineties. But then in 2000, after these witnesses had passed away, the police decided that these witnesses were no longer suitable and began questioning the evidence that those alibi witnesses would have provided.

“I went right back to the beginning and investigated the case from the bottom up. Because my five-year investigation reaches a completely different conclusion as to what happened to Suzy and where she went on the afternoon she disappeared, along with uncovering a wealth of supporting evidence to this effect, I can say that I do not believe John Cannan was involved in her disappearance.

“My investigation as detailed in my book, ‘Finding Suzy’, shows what did happen to Suzy on the day of her disappearance and not what didn’t happen. This might seem like an obvious point, but so much of this case has previously been built on assumption and myth, that the truth has been ignored.”