Simon Levy handed whole-life tariff for double murder and rape

Errors by police and prosecutors after first murder had left serial sex offender free to kill again

Simon Levy, the prolific sexual predator left free by police and prosecution errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a rare whole-life tariff.

Judge Lucraft KC said Levy, 40, “ruthlessly” exploited women for his sexual pleasure, and had a proven history of sexual offending dating back to 2018.

Levy will be one of a group of just 76 people currently confined to jail for the rest of their lives.

Police have admitted that it is likely his second murder victim could have been saved were it not for errors by officers and the prosecution service.

The sentencing was watched by the families of his murder victims, Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, killed in south-east London in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins, murdered five months later in Tottenham, north London. Wilkins was murdered just a day short of her 40th birthday and had 83 marks on her body.

Levy was also convicted of attacking and raping another woman, aged 35, in Tottenham in January 2025, known as “ED” to protect her anonymity. She survived and gave damning testimony of how she was beaten, suffocated and raped.

Levy, from Tottenham in north London, 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.

Before the killings he already had an extensive history of sexual offending and was on the sex offender register, having been jailed in 2021 for two sexual assaults.

Sentencing Levy at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, the judge told him he was “someone who appears to have a morbid fascination with sex, rape and crime”. Lucraft added: “You will be in prison for life.”

Months before the first killing, British Transport Police arrested Levy for sexual assaulting women on trains but made errors that delayed charging him, leaving him free.

In total he carried out 10 attacks on trains in London, many while on bail for the first set of train attacks. He was convicted of those crimes earlier this year.

The prosecutor, Tom Little KC, said Levy’s offending was so severe it deserved a whole-life tariff, and an aggravating feature was that sexual violence was “inextricably interwoven with the killing” of both victims.

The sentencing heard harrowing testimony from the victims’ loved ones that the women were vulnerable because they were sex workers and used drugs, but that they were much loved and central to the lives of their families.

Wilkins’s mother, Mary, said her daughter was a sacrifice to keep others safe: “You have done this before and wouldn’t have stopped. Our Sheryl has ended your chances of hurting anyone else.

“She lost her life to do this, but we truly believe Sheryl has saved countless women from being subjected to your disgusting and horrendous acts. I hope you never walk the streets again as you are a threat to all women.”

Wilkins’s sister, Lindsey Hicks, said: “You, Simon Levy, have destroyed our lives. Sheryl was a beautiful soul … the pain you have put her through is unbearable. I hope you rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

The woman Levy attacked in January 2025 told the court she was a “mum and a classical pianist” from eastern Europe and had been trafficked into the UK and used drugs to deal with the pain.

She said Levy was a “monster” but said she was stronger now, and had vowed to overcome the “humiliation” he had inflicted on her. He had tried to steal her “soul and dignity” as he set on her, she said, and had left her for dead after raping and strangling her. She vowed: “‘I will play music again and smile.”

The woman said that when she first told officers of the attack they “spoke to me like a child”. This was in January 2025, before the other two murders.

The judge and DCI Neil John, of the Met police, said the woman’s bravery was crucial to ensuring Levy was jailed for life. After all the Met’s failings, its murder team had arrested Levy for Wilkins’s murder, then found Levy’s first victim and got a full statement, and also linked him to the first murder, of Valencia-Trujillo.

John said: “I must also commend the victim-survivor who showed considerable bravery and presented vital evidence in court. Her testimony was crucial.”

The judge said: “It takes considerable courage to come to court and to give evidence … she should be commended for doing so.”

Victims groups have described the litany of failings in the Levy case as staggering. Government sources say they have no plans for an independent inquiry into the errors – but they come after other scandals highlighting catastrophic errors by police that led to women being seriously hurt or murdered.

Police errors were a factor in allowing the black cab rapist John Worboys to drug and rape scores of women .

And the murderer and kidnapper of Sarah Everard, Wayne Couzens, had earlier exposed himself repeatedly, but police had taken no action and left him as a serving police officer.

Another Met officer, David Carrick , was able to use his status to intimidate and sexually assault women, while complaint after complaint against him was ignored.

Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “The catalogue of combined failures in this case provides terrifying evidence that our criminal justice system is in a state of collapse.

“Given the series of catastrophic failures by the Met police on top of an appalling history of police failures … we must conclude that the Met police are not fit for purpose.”

Next year the official Angiolini inquiry, set up after the Couzens scandal, will report and is considering a finding that police are institutionally misogynist.

Kevin Southworth, the Met deputy assistant commissioner, said: “We know that this case has raised questions around the way Levy was handled and we have carefully reflected on the opportunities missed to prevent his violent offending.

“It highlighted that improvements needed to be made and we have not waited for the outcome of the IOPC’s report to implement change.”

Two Met officers are under investigation by the police watchdog in relation to the case. Levy’s risk assessment was downgraded by the Met in August 2024 from high to medium, in part because he was blind in one eye, believed by detectives to be a reprisal for the rape of another woman.

British Transport Police moved one officer, blamed for the delay in charging Levy for the train attacks, out of investigations, and verbally told off his supervisor, but have not referred themselves to the police watchdog.

Prosecutors admitted bungling efforts to have Levy remanded in custody after the first murder and after he was charged with the train attacks. They failed to provide three court hearings with key information demonstrating the full extent of the danger he posed to women.

A Crown Prosecution Service source said people have and will continue to be disciplined, but refused to give details.

When first arrested for murder, Levy, who lived with his mother and sister, was wearing children’s pyjamas. He needed an appropriate adult present when detectives interviewed him and had dyslexia, autism and learning difficulties. He is believed to have been long-term unemployed.