Chilling moment serial rapist smirks in creepy dating video just weeks before abducting and murdering first victim

THIS is the moment a smirking serial rapist lets his mask slip in a creepy dating video just weeks before he murdered his first victim.

John Cannan, 67, sneers at the “inflated egos” and “inner weakness” of women while filming the personal ad in September 1987.

John Cannan grins in a dating video weeks before murdering a newlywed

Just one month later, the serial predator kidnapped and murdered newlywed Shirley Banks in Bristol.

It was also filmed more than a year after Suzy Lamplugh disappeared – with Cannon named as the prime suspect in her murder.

Experts on documentary Faking It have now revealed how the fiend exposed who he really was despite masquerading as a charming businessman named John Peterson.

Body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley says: “He’s well presented, he’s well groomed, and even the staff who were working at the dating agency said, ‘he’s attractive, he’s got charisma’.

“It’s all a charade, because he’s even using an alias.”

Cannan tells the interviewer he is looking for a partner who is “pleasant, natural, relaxed” and someone who is “calm”.

He also claims he wants to find love as he was in a “sedimentary period” after achieving all his financial and career goals.

But forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes suggests Cannan may be trying too hard to project a fake persona.

She tells the show: “He’s kind of overshooting it a bit here.

“I see that a lot with psychopathic personalities. He doesn’t seem to realise when he takes it too far.”

The arrogant rapist smugly lists Gandhi and “philosophers like Bertrand Russell” among people he admires.

Cannan, whose grim modus operandi was to kidnap and attack businesswomen, also says he could never “blame” a potential partner for being career orientated.

But as the dating interview continues, Cannan appears to struggle to answer basic questions as the mask begins to slip.

Experts say Cannan begins expressing contempt during the interview

Dr Lansley says: “What we see is a micro-expression which is a combination of contempt and, immediately after, fear.

“Contempt is a unilateral expression; it happens on one side of the face.

“On one corner of the lip will move up to the centre of the cheek activated by what we call the buccinator muscle in the cheek. And that cheek dimple action is a sign of contemptuous judgement.”

Just weeks after the dating video was made, Cannan attempted to abduct a woman but she bravely managed to fight him off.

Tragically he succeeded the next day and snatched textile factory worker Shirley, 29, in Bristol on October 8, 1987.

Her naked body was found six months after her disappearance at a site named “Dead Woman’s Ditch” in Somerset.

Shockingly, Cannan managed to overturn a whole life tariff originally handed to him in 1989 when he was convicted of Shirley’s murder.

Newlywed Shirley Banks was killed by Cannan in 1987

He has since also attempted to appeal the mandatory 35 years minimum sentence that replaced it but his plea has been rejected.

However, the minimum term is up in October next year – with Cannan now making a bid for freedom with a Parole Board hearing.

The rapist, murderer and kidnapper was arrested over Suzy’s disappearance in 2000.

But the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him – with police later taking the rare step of naming him as a prime suspect in 2002.

The estate agent vanished in July 1986 after going to show a client named Mr Kipper a home in Fulham, West London.

She was officially declared dead eight years later with her parents tragically dying before discovering what happened to their daughter.

The brand-new series of Faking It airs at 10pm on Saturdays on Quest Red, or stream now on discovery+

Cannan was jailed for at least 35 years

He is the prime suspect in Suzy’s disappearance