A serial sex offender who murdered two women and raped a third while being repeatedly released on bail has been handed a whole life prison sentence.
Simon Levy, 40, killed grandmother Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, in March 2025 and mother-of-four Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in August that year, as his pattern of offending escalated from sexual assaults on the Tube to double murder.
He suffocated both women in sexually motivated attacks, with Ms Valencia-Trujillo discovered in a largely derelict block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in south-east London, and Ms Wilkins found behind a car park wall near Tottenham High Road, north London.
Justice system failures
By the time Levy turned killer, he had already subjected a third woman to a savage rape in the same car park where Ms Wilkins' body was subsequently discovered, and the surviving victim had informed police of her attacker's address.
Yet she was not formally interviewed until after Levy had killed twice, in a damning series of justice system failures that saw Levy repeatedly released on bail despite a mounting catalogue of attacks on women.
At the Old Bailey on Wednesday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, sentenced Levy to a whole life prison term, meaning he will never be eligible for release.
Court proceedings
"You are clearly someone who ruthlessly exploits others for your own personal sexual satisfaction," said the judge. Highlighting his troubling online search history and collection of newspaper clippings relating to sexual offences, he said Levy is "someone who appears to have a morbid fascination with sex, rape, and crime".
Levy's victims called him a "monster" and a "parasite" during the sentencing proceedings.
Following a trial that reached its conclusion last week, a jury found Levy guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and the non-fatal smothering of the rape victim.
Earlier this year, Levy had also been convicted at Inner London Crown Court of 11 sexual assaults committed on London's public transport network.
Victim impact statements
Throughout the murder trial, prosecutor Tom Little KC argued that "predatory" Levy deliberately targeted Ms Wilkins, Ms Valencia-Trujillo, and the third woman who survived, exploiting their vulnerability as street sex workers struggling with drug dependencies.
Wearing sunglasses throughout the sentencing hearing, Levy appeared to be smiling as he entered the dock, responding only with "yes" when asked to confirm his identity.
He remained emotionless as the surviving victim and relatives of the murdered women read out their impact statements.
The surviving rape victim described Levy as a "monster", telling the court she had fallen into drug addiction and sex work following being trafficked to the UK.
Levy had attacked her in an isolated section of a car park after offering her money in return for sex. "He took away my soul that night and he took away my dignity," she stated, describing the assault as "worse than all the nights of being a victim of trafficking".
"This man is a parasite not worthy of any more of my words or time," she continued.
Ms Wilkins' sister Lindsey Hicks emotionally confronted Levy in court, declaring: "You, Simon Levy, have destroyed our lives and we will never ever get over this."
Ms Valencia-Trujillo's daughter, Nazly Johana Fuenmayor Valencia, described the killing as "horrific", telling the court: "There's an emptiness that can't be filled."
"Our world has been ripped apart, she was taken from our family and we will never be the same again."
She remembered her mother as a "beautiful woman both inside and out", adding: "She came to this country to give her children a better life and for safety, and her life was taken so cruelly."
Official acknowledgements and appeal
After Friday's verdicts, the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police (BTP) and Crown Prosecution Service acknowledged failures in their handling of Levy, who remained on bail while his attacks on women intensified, culminating in double murder.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed it had issued a gross misconduct notice to a Met police constable and a misconduct notice to a detective sergeant.
Scotland Yard has additionally appealed for any further victims of sexual assaults by Levy to contact police.
Levy's extensive pattern of sexual offences covered the years from 2018 to 2025. He was imprisoned in 2021 for sexually assaulting two women during the summer of 2018, one at Notting Hill Carnival and another at a Camden party.
British Transport Police arrested Levy in November 2024 for sexual assaults on the Underground, but hold-ups in arranging an identification parade until the following April meant he remained at liberty to commit the rape and first murder.
After Ms Valencia-Trujillo's death, Levy was granted bail at two separate magistrates' court appearances in May and June 2025.
The Crown Prosecution Service acknowledged it had failed to oppose bail at the initial hearing, while the prosecutor had not provided the court with all pertinent information for consideration at the second hearing.
There were a further three crown court appearances which he missed for varying reasons, yet no warrant for his arrest was sought.
Fewer than two weeks after an appearance on August 11, he murdered Ms Wilkins.
The killings of Ms Valencia-Trujillo and Ms Wilkins across eight months in 2025 were punctuated by sexual assaults on six women on the Tube and Overground.
As a convicted sex offender, Levy was under supervision by the probation service and police but consistently deceived officers who called at the residence he shared with his mother, insisting he stayed indoors watching YouTube and films instead.
Following the guilty verdicts, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth, from the Met Police, said: "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."
