Simon Levy, a serial sexual predator who was left free by a string of police failings to kill two women, was handed a whole-life tariff on Wednesday 12 August 2026, meaning he will spend the rest of his life in prison. The 40-year-old, from Tottenham in north London, had already been found guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later, as well as raping a third woman, 35, in January 2025, who survived the attack and testified against him.
Levy was on bail as a suspect in the first killing when he went on to commit the second murder, after police said at the time that they did not have enough evidence to charge him. He already had a lengthy record of sexual offending before the murders and was on the sex offender register following a 2021 jail sentence for two sexual assaults.
The recorder of London, Mark Lucraft KC, delivered the sentence at the Old Bailey in front of the victims' families. Levy sat in the dock wearing dark glasses because of an eye injury as the sentence was read out.
How did police failings allow the attacks to continue?
Months before the first murder, British Transport Police arrested Levy over sexual assaults committed against women on trains, but administrative errors delayed the process of charging him and he remained at liberty. While on bail for those offences, he carried out ten further attacks across London and, despite being charged with most of them, was still not detained before he committed his second murder.
His offending escalated through 2025: in January, March and August he attacked three women who were either sex workers or who sometimes exchanged sexual acts for money or drugs, jurors were told. Two of the women died and the third was left seriously injured. Valencia-Trujillo, 53, was murdered in a partly disused tower block on 17 March 2025, while Wilkins, 39, was killed in a car park in Tottenham on 24 August 2025.
The surviving victim, who has anonymity, was raped, beaten and suffocated by Levy in January 2025 in the same Tottenham car park where Wilkins was later killed — just eight minutes' walk from the home Levy shared with his mother and sister. According to , jurors convicted Levy of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and intentional strangulation in relation to that attack.
What did prosecutors and families say?
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the court that the severity of Levy's offending warranted a whole-life tariff, arguing that sexual violence was, as he put it, an aggravating feature of both killings because it was inextricably interwoven with the murders themselves.
Sheryl Wilkins' mother, Mary, addressed Levy directly in her victim impact statement:
I hope you never walk the streets again as you are a threat to all women.
Wilkins' sister, Lindsey Hicks, also spoke of the devastation caused to her family:
You, Simon Levy, have destroyed our lives. Sheryl was a beautiful soul … The pain you have put her through is unbearable.
The woman Levy raped in January 2025 described herself in court as a mum and a classical pianist. Originally from eastern Europe, she said she had been trafficked into the UK and had used drugs to cope with her pain, telling the court that Levy's attack had taken away her soul and dignity and calling him a monster and a parasite.
Nazly Johana Fuenmayor Valencia, the daughter of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, told the court that her mother, who the court heard had used drugs, carried many daily responsibilities and had been the pillar of her family.
What history of offending did Levy have?
Levy's record of sexual violence stretched back years before the murders. He was already on the sex offenders' register over two sexual assaults committed in 2018, for which he was jailed in 2021, according to . Separately, Sky's coverage reports that he had been released on licence in February 2023 after serving that sentence.
An earlier investigation into an alleged sexual assault in 2017 did not result in charges at the time, a decision that police and prosecutors have since described as a mistake, according to a national broadcaster's report. The same report notes that the surviving victim was left further shocked to learn of that earlier, uncharged investigation once she discovered it during the case against Levy.
How have officials responded to the failings?
Official figures cited around the sentencing showed that, before Levy joined their number, 75 prisoners across England and Wales were already serving whole-life tariffs.
The Crown Prosecution Service, the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police have all admitted making errors in handling Levy's case. Prosecutors acknowledged bungling attempts to have him remanded in custody both after the first murder and after he was charged with the train attacks, and admitted failing to give three separate court hearings the key information needed to demonstrate the full extent of the danger he posed to women.
Two Metropolitan Police officers are currently under investigation by the police watchdog over alleged failings in the case — a probe first confirmed in our earlier coverage of his conviction. Levy's risk assessment had been downgraded by the Met from high to medium in August 2024 and, despite the subsequent train attacks and his arrest on suspicion of murder, was never upgraded again.
At a separate trial earlier this year, Levy was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for the train attacks, along with a sexual assault committed against a prison officer in April 2022, shortly after he was first imprisoned.
What happened during the trial?
Levy had denied all the charges against him, telling the earlier stages of proceedings, detailed in our report on the trial in which he denied murdering two women and raping another, that he was not responsible for the attacks on the three women, who the court heard were vulnerable and had been deliberately targeted. According to the broadcaster's trial coverage, the jury returned a majority verdict after around 13 hours of deliberation, at which point the judge remanded Levy into custody ahead of sentencing.
What happens next?
The sentencing hearing, at which the court determined the whole-life order, had been scheduled and then confirmed for Wednesday 12 August 2026 at the Old Bailey, according to the same broadcaster report. With the whole-life tariff now imposed, Levy will remain in prison for the rest of his life with no prospect of release, while the police watchdog's investigation into the two Metropolitan Police officers continues.
Key Facts
- Simon Levy, 40, of Tottenham, received a whole-life tariff at the Old Bailey on 12 August 2026.
- He murdered Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, on 17 March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, on 24 August 2025, and raped a 35-year-old woman in January 2025.
- He was on bail for the first murder when he committed the second, and carried out ten further attacks while on bail for train-related sexual assaults.
- He was already on the sex offenders' register for 2018 assaults and had been jailed in 2021.
- Two Metropolitan Police officers remain under investigation by the police watchdog over handling of the case.
