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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Nicholas Cecil

Tube sex 'monster' Simon Levy who killed two women in London jailed for rest of his life

Predatory sex attacker Simon Levy who targeted victims on the Tube was jailed for the rest of his life for murdering two women and raping a third after being left free to kill.

A string of failures by the police and Crown Prosecution Service meant that Levy’s “evil” crimes, including double murder, continued for many months before he was caught.

Jobless Levy, 40, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering grandmother Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, in March 2025 and mother-of-four Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in August that year.

Levy, of Beaufoy Road, Tottenham, north London, suffocated both women in sexually motivated attacks.

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Wednesday to a whole-life prison term for the murders and rape.

It means he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, with no chance of being freed.

Sentencing Levy, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, told him: “You are clearly someone who ruthlessly exploits others for your own personal sexual satisfaction.”

Noting his disturbing internet history and collection of press cuttings about sexual crimes, he stressed that Levy was “someone who appears to have a morbid fascination with sex, rape, and crime”.

Victims who survived Levy’s attacks branded him a “monster” and a “parasite” as he faced the sentencing hearing.

Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, who died in the Aylesbury Estate, south-east London, on March 17 2025 (PA Media)
Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, who died in the Aylesbury Estate, south-east London, on March 17 2025 (PA Media)

His murders and series of sex attacks have shocked London.

Ms Valencia-Trujillo’s body was found in a largely abandoned block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in south east London, and Ms Wilkins was discovered behind a car park wall near Tottenham High Road, north London.

The killings came after Levy subjected a third woman to a brutal sex attack in January last year in the same car park where Ms 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.

"I never thought this man would be so evil," she told police after she was left with a broken collarbone when Levy bore down on her with all his weight.

Levy also sexually assaulted 10 women on busy rush-hour Tube or overground trains between 24 October 2023 and 29 May 2025.

Sheryl Wilkins who was found dead in the same car park where Simon Levy raped a woman months before (Met Police/PA) (PA Wire)
Sheryl Wilkins who was found dead in the same car park where Simon Levy raped a woman months before (Met Police/PA) (PA Wire)

Levy, who wore sunglasses throughout the sentencing hearing, appeared to be smiling as he entered the dock to be sentenced, and he spoke only to say “yes” when asked to confirm his name.

He looked on without displaying emotion as the surviving victim, as well as the murder victim’s family members, delivered their impact statements.

The surviving rape victim called Levy a “monster”, and told the court she had become a drug addict and sex worker after being trafficked to the UK.

She had been attacked by Levy in a secluded area of a car park after he promised her money in exchange for sex.

“He took away my soul that night and he took away my dignity,” she 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.

Ms Wilkins’ sister Lindsey Hicks tearfully addressed Levy directly, saying: “You, Simon Levy, have destroyed our lives and we will never ever get over this.”

Ms 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.”

Bodyworn video shows the Met Police arresting serial sex attacker Simon Levy, 40 (PA)
Bodyworn video shows the Met Police arresting serial sex attacker Simon Levy, 40 (PA)

Judge Martin Evans KC said at Levy’s trial, after he had been found guilty, that he carried out "a deliberate, persistent and carefully orchestrated campaign of targeted assaults on women" over a three-year period.

Policing minister Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon West, praised "the survivor who bravely came forward and helped bring this monster to justice".

A jury had also found Levy guilty of two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and the non-fatal smothering of the third woman.

During the murder trial, prosecutor Tom Little KC said “predatory” Levy had targeted the three vulnerable women, all of whom carried out street sex work in order to fund drug addictions.

Simon Levy
Simon Levy

Following the guilty verdicts last Friday, the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Crown Prosecution Service admitted failings in how they dealt with Levy, who was on bail as his attacks on women escalated to double murder.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it had served a gross misconduct notice on a Met police constable and a misconduct notice on a detective sergeant.

Scotland Yard has also issued a plea for any more survivors of sex attacks by Levy to come forward to police.

His prolific sexual offending spanned the period between 2018 to 2025.

He was 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.

Earlier this year, he was convicted of 11 counts of sexual assault in a separate trial at Inner London Crown Court.

He was arrested by British Transport Police 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.

When they took details of his Oyster card, BTP officers did not realise that it had been stolen from a bus driver, meaning Levy had a free travel pass that he used on the day he murdered Ms Valencia-Trujillo.

Following her death, Levy was released on bail at two magistrates’ court hearings in May and June 2025.

Screengrab taken from bodyworn video from April 1 2025 of Simon Levy being arrested for the first murder (PA Wire)
Screengrab taken from bodyworn video from April 1 2025 of Simon Levy being arrested for the first murder (PA Wire)

The Crown Prosecution Service admitted that it had not opposed bail at the first hearing, and the prosecutor had not given the court all the relevant information for consideration at the second hearing.

There were another three crown court hearings that Levy failed to attend for various reasons, yet no arrest warrant was requested.

Less than two weeks after a hearing on August 11, he murdered Ms Wilkins.

The murders of Ms Valencia-Trujillo and Ms Wilkins over eight months in 2025 were interspersed with sexual assaults on six women on the Tube and Overground.

As a convicted sex offender, partially-sighted Levy was being monitored by the probation service and police.

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.

He later tried to claim that his partial sight and wobbly, crowded trains led him to grope 10 women on London’s transport network.

Ms Valencia-Trujillo’s children described her as a “big character” and “full of life”.

She became a grandmother in 2024 and was said to be a “much-loved” member of the community with a love of salsa dancing.

Ms Wilkins’ family said she was a much-loved woman and was missed every day by those who knew her.

Sheryl Wilkins, 39, was killed by Levy (PA Media)
Sheryl Wilkins, 39, was killed by Levy (PA Media)

Speaking outside the Old Bailey last week, 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.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth, from the Met, 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.”

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