Judge Mark Lucraft KC sentenced Simon Levy, 40, of Beaufoy Road, Tottenham, to a whole life prison term on Wednesday
after
he was found guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins in 2025, as well as two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm, and intentional strangulation of another woman
in a sentencing that exposed catastrophic failures across London’s criminal justice system.
Levy murdered grandmother Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, in March 2025 and mother-of-four Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in August that year
.
He suffocated both women in sexually motivated attacks, with Valencia-Trujillo found in a largely abandoned block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in south-east London, and Wilkins behind a car park wall near Tottenham High Road, north London
.
The killings came after he subjected a third woman to a brutal sex attack in January last year in the same car park where Wilkins’ body was later found
.
The surviving victim, who suffered a broken collarbone, told police at the time that she had been raped and knew where her attacker lived, but she was not formally interviewed until after Levy had killed twice
.
At sentencing, the judge described Levy’s depravity in stark terms.
“You are clearly someone who ruthlessly exploits others for your own personal sexual satisfaction,” said the judge
.
Noting his disturbing internet history and collection of press cuttings about sexual crimes, he said Levy is “someone who appears to have a morbid fascination with sex, rape, and crime”
.
Victims and family members delivered powerful statements in court.
“He took away my soul that night and he took away my dignity,” one survivor said, calling the attack “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 added
.
“You, Simon Levy, have destroyed our lives and we will never ever get over this,” said Sheryl Wilkins’s sister Lindsey Hicks, speaking tearfully to the defendant
.
Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo’s daughter, Nazly Johana Fuenmayor Valencia, called the murder “horrific”, and told 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”
.
The whole life sentence is the most severe punishment in the UK criminal justice system and is extremely rare – with only just over 70 people currently serving the term in England and Wales
.
Police failures allowed Levy to continue his spree despite earlier arrests.
Levy was arrested by BTP in November 2024 for sexual assaults on the Tube, but delays in organising an identification parade until the following April left him free to carry out the rape and first murder
.
Following Valencia-Trujillo’s death, Levy was released on bail at two magistrates’ court hearings in May and June 2025
.
A post-mortem examination could not provide a definitive cause of death, meaning police were unable to confirm whether there was any third-party involvement
.
As a result, Levy was bailed while further investigative work was carried out, as this is standard procedure since the charge threshold for murder is high and it could not be reached
.
Detective Chief Inspector Neil John from Scotland Yard said: “Simon Levy is a dangerous and predatory offender. His crimes were calculated, cruel and deeply disturbing. Throughout the trial, he has shown complete disregard for the victims and victim-survivor, despite being fully aware of the lasting and devastating impact of his actions”
.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley acknowledged the scale of institutional failure.
Rowley described the handling of the case as a “whole system failing” after Wednesday’s sentence
. In earlier comments, he told reporters the force “could have done better, definitely,” but added that “the justice system needs to do its job better.”
Harriet Wistrich, CEO of the Centre for Women’s Justice, pointed to systemic collapse.
“The catalogue of combined failures in this case provides terrifying evidence – if it was needed – that our criminal justice system is in a state of collapse”
.
Levy was on the sex offenders register, but despite this and his continued offending, the Met Police actually downgraded his risk from high to medium
.
Despite many of his victims courageously coming forward to report Levy, the police failed to conduct timely investigations, and when he was brought to court, the CPS failed to remand him in custody or issue a warrant when he failed to appear in court
.
Mayor Sadiq Khan issued a statement blaming multiple agencies.
Khan said: “I am appalled by his crimes and the failures across multiple agencies that could have prevented him from harming, and ultimately killing, more women”
.
He said “Multi-agency failings need a multi-agency review and alongside London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime and London’s Victims’ Commissioner, I’ll continue to work with the Met Police, the government and partner agencies to ensure that all steps are being taken to understand, learn from and act on lessons learned to ensure this never happens again”
.
The case has been referred to the Independent Office of Police Complaints
.
The police watchdog confirmed two officers are being investigated over their handling of Levy, with a police constable under investigation for gross misconduct, and a detective sergeant facing a misconduct investigation
.
In the viral moment that launched investigations,
Levy was convicted in February of 11 counts of sexual assault in a separate trial at Inner London Crown Court
.
He had been jailed in 2021 for groping two women in the summer of 2018, one at Notting Hill Carnival and the other at a party in Camden
.
His prolific sexual offending spanned the period between 2018 to 2025
.
The 2025 attacks escalated dramatically.
Police responded to reports of an unresponsive woman in an abandoned building on the Aylesbury Estate, SE17 on Monday, 17 March 2025. She was sadly pronounced dead upon arrival of the emergency services and was later identified as 53-year-old Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo
.
Officers arrested Levy on suspicion of murder on Tuesday, 1 April 2025
.
Levy’s victims were all vulnerable women involved in street sex work
, making them particularly susceptible to predation and less likely to receive protective services.
The Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Crown Prosecution Service have acknowledged failings in how they handled the case
.
British Transport Police said women who recognised Levy as their attacker should report it, while the Metropolitan Police said it had actively investigated whether he had more victims, including further murders
.
The Met, BTP and Crown Prosecution Service have all admitted failures in how Levy was monitored between his first conviction in September 2021 on sexual assault charges and his arrest for murder in September 2025
.
The case has drawn comparisons to previous policing scandals.
Experts in tackling male sexual violence see similarities between Levy’s case and that of Wayne Couzens, the Met officer who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021
.
Wistrich said the Levy case “shows a very clear pattern of escalating offending, from sexual assaults of women on public transport to rape and murder … perpetrators can become emboldened and move on to even more dangerous offending”
.
Andrea Simons, London’s victims’ commissioner, said a review into the “failure to monitor him appropriately” was needed after it emerged the 40-year-old was able to target his victims despite being known to police as a sexual predator
.
Simons told BBC Breakfast a “multi-agency review” was needed, saying: “There was a lack of restrictions that could have been placed on him and a failure to monitor him appropriately”
.