Double killer and rapist given whole life sentence

A serial enactment attacker who had a "morbid fascination" with enactment has been jailed for the remainder of his beingness aft helium was recovered blameworthy of murdering 2 women and raping a third.

Simon Levy, 40, killed Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, successful March 2025 and 39-year-old Sheryl Wilkins 5 months later. Earlier that year, helium raped a 3rd pistillate successful the aforesaid Tottenham car parkland wherever Wilkins was aboriginal recovered dead.

At the Old Bailey connected Wednesday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC sentenced Levy to a full beingness order, meaning helium volition ne'er beryllium released.

The condemnation comes aft police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) apologised over a bid of disastrous decisions that near him escaped to roam the streets.

When Levy carried retired the attacks, helium was connected bail and being monitored by the Met.

The constabulary watchdog is presently examining however helium was managed implicit a four-year period, from his archetypal condemnation successful September 2021 for intersexual battle up to his last apprehension successful September 2025.

Following Wednesday's sentencing, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the handling of Levy's lawsuit was a "whole strategy failing".

During his trial, the tribunal heard Levy suffocated some women successful sexually motivated attacks, with Valencia-Trujillo recovered successful a mostly abandoned artifact of flats connected the Aylesbury property successful south-east London, and Wilkins down a car parkland partition adjacent Tottenham High Road, northbound London.

The pistillate helium raped had told the constabulary wherever helium lived but she was not formally interviewed until aft Levy had killed.

Sentencing Levy, Lucraft said, external: "You are intelligibly idiosyncratic who ruthlessly exploits others for your ain idiosyncratic intersexual satisfaction".

Noting his disturbing net past and postulation of property cuttings astir intersexual crimes, Lucraft said Levy was "someone who appears to person a morbid fascination with sex, rape, and crime".

The justice added the offences reflected "a bid of attacks by you upon susceptible women".

Lucraft added helium was "acutely alert that full beingness presumption are sentences that should beryllium considered for uncommon cases".

But successful this lawsuit "the starting constituent has to beryllium a full beingness order", helium said, arsenic the aggravating features outweighed immoderate mitigating features and "this cannot beryllium described successful immoderate mode arsenic a borderline case".

"You volition beryllium successful situation for beingness and determination volition beryllium a full beingness order," the justice added.

The tribunal heard unfortunate interaction statements from families of the murdered women and the pistillate helium raped.

Lindsey Hicks, Wilkins' sister, addressed Levy directly, saying: "I anticipation you rot successful situation for the remainder of your life."

She added: "You, Simon Levy, person destroyed our lives and we volition ne'er get implicit this. Sheryl was a beauteous psyche who you cruelly took distant successful an evil enactment of crime.

"We should person been increasing aged unneurotic similar sisters bash and beryllium determination to enactment each other.

"Instead, I'm having to realise that 1 time successful the adjacent aboriginal I volition beryllium older than my large sister."

She said the past twelvemonth had been the "worst of our lives" and concluded her witnesser connection by telling him: "Know this, you lose."

Wilkins' mother, Mary Wilkins, said she takes a "small measurement of comfort" that Levy is present locked up and volition ne'er beryllium escaped again.

She added her girl "ended your chances of hurting anyone else".

During his trial, jurors heard Levy had a drawstring of convictions for attacking women dating backmost to July 2018, including 1 carried retired against a situation serviceman successful 2022.

Earlier this year, Levy was besides convicted of sexually assaulting 11 different women, 10 of them connected trains and the Tube successful London betwixt 2023 and 2025.

Levy had declined to springiness grounds during his proceedings but pleaded not blameworthy to the 2 murders, arsenic good arsenic 2 counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent, and non-fatal suffocation against the surviving woman.

After sentencing, Sir Mark said the Met had apologised for its part.

"The concerning facet for maine is the information helium had been caught, helium had been charged with offences," helium said.

"He was repeatedly enactment by constabulary earlier the courts seeking helium beryllium remanded successful custody, saying this antheral is excessively unsafe to beryllium connected the streets, and betwixt the CPS and the courts, they kept bailing him."

The commissioner said it was "not acceptable" for the "struggling transgression justness system" to enactment unsafe offenders connected the thoroughfare for the constabulary to monitor.

He added: "We are seeing acold excessively galore cases time successful and time out, weapon bearer enactment offenders who person been bailed erstwhile a fewer years agone they person been remanded successful custody."

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said Valencia-Trujillo, Wilkins and Levy's different victims "deserved a strategy that believed and protected them".

He added: "Time and clip again, opportunities to halt him were missed.

"I americium appalled by his crimes and the failures crossed aggregate agencies that could person prevented him from harming, and yet killing, much women."

He said the "multi-agency failings request a multi-agency review" and that lessons should beryllium learned and acted on.

"No pistillate oregon miss should be, oregon feel, unsafe successful London," the politician added.

In a missive to the manager of nationalist prosecution, Nick Timothy, the shadiness justness secretary, wrote: "Levy was escaped to bash this partially due to the fact that your organisation failed to marque the lawsuit for this intersexual predator to beryllium enactment backmost down bars, successful spite of warnings from others."

Former safeguarding curate Jess Phillips told the BBC determination had been a "litany of failures".

"Of people it was Levy who undertook that action, but the authorities could decidedly person prevented it truthful it has to carnivore that responsibility," she told Radio 4.

The Labour MP added that "an idiot could person seen that [Levy was a risk]".

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