Simon Levy given whole-life order for murdering two women while on bail as sex offender

The crimes

Simon Levy, 40, from Tottenham in north London, was sentenced to a whole-life tariff at the Old Bailey on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by the recorder of London, Mark Lucraft KC, meaning he will never be released from prison. Levy was convicted by a jury on Friday 7 August of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, on 17 March 2025 in a partly disused tower block, and murdering Sheryl Wilkins, 39, on 24 August 2025 in a Tottenham car park. He was also convicted of raping, beating and suffocating a third woman, aged 35, in January 2025 in the same Tottenham car park, eight minutes' walk from the home he shared with his mother and sister. The surviving rape victim, who has anonymity, gave damning testimony against him. Levy watched from the dock wearing dark glasses because of an eye injury.

Pattern of offending

Levy's attacks targeted women who were either sex workers or sometimes performed sexual acts in return for money or drugs, the jury was told. He killed two of three women he attacked in January, March and August 2025, leaving the third seriously injured. His first known attacks were in summer 2018, when he sexually assaulted a woman named Laura, who waived her anonymity to speak to the BBC, and a separate victim. After his release from prison, Levy sexually assaulted 11 other women between 2023 and 2025, 10 of them on trains and tubes in London. In total, he attacked 14 more women after being released from prison before being taken off the streets.

System failures

Levy was being monitored by the Metropolitan Police as a registered sex offender throughout the period of his attacks. He repeatedly lied to officers who visited him at the home he shared with his mother, claiming he did not go out and watched YouTube and films instead. Months before the first killing, British Transport Police arrested him for sexual assaults on trains, but made errors that delayed charging him and left him free. He was on bail as a suspect for the first murder when he committed the second, after police said they lacked sufficient evidence to charge him. While on bail, he carried out a further 10 attacks across London. A police watchdog investigation is underway into the Met's handling of Levy, and British Transport Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have both accepted serious failings.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth, from the Met Police, acknowledged the failures after the verdicts.

There's a collective system failure here, which has left Levy free to go on offending in this awful manner and left these victims at risk from his prolific offending, and that's something which ourselves and colleagues across the criminal justice system will need to reflect on.

Victim testimony

Laura, who was attacked by Levy in 2018, told the BBC she had been trying to protect other women by reporting him, but feels betrayed by the criminal justice system. She said she feels let down by the Met Police, the courts, the judges who bailed Levy, and the Crown Prosecution Service. She described Levy as "evil" and said his attack "completely changed my life", adding that what she would "think about, dream about, have nightmares about was actually happening" because he was still out preying on vulnerable women.

They're all as guilty for allowing him to continue to do what he was doing. They could have prevented so many women from being hurt. They could have prevented two women from losing their lives.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the court that sexual violence was "inextricably interwoven with the killing" of both victims, arguing the severity deserved a whole-life tariff. Wilkins' mother, Mary, said in her victim impact statement that Levy should never be released.