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A man who was arrested in connection with the suspected murder of a woman was freed by police and went on to kill another woman four months later, a court has heard.
The prosecution said Simon Levy, 40, had previously raped and attacked a third woman, whom he left for dead, and sexually assaulted six others during a series of attacks between January and August 2025.
Levy denies the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, on 17 March 2025 in south-east London and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, on 24 August 2025 in Tottenham, north London, and raping and attacking the third woman.
The trial at the Old Bailey also heard that Levy had convictions for sexual offences dating back to 2018, as well as against the six women in the first five months of 2025.
“That tells you everything you need to know about his attitude and approach to women,” the prosecutor, Tom Little KC, told the Old Bailey.
Little said Levy carried out a “series of predatory sexual attacks in the first eight months of 2025 on three very vulnerable women”. The women were sex workers or sometimes performed sexual acts in return for money or drugs, the jury was told.
He said the women’s vulnerability led Levy to believe he would get away with his crimes. “It is why and how the defendant encountered them and it is also a reason why he attacked them, no doubt hoping and thinking that he would get away with it,” he said.
The first attack, where the victim survived, and the third attack seven months later were in the same car park in Tottenham, close to where Levy lived, Little said.
He said CCTV from August 2025 showed Levy walking with Wilkins to the car park and disappearing behind a wall. “Nobody else went behind the wall,” Little told the jury. “Nobody could have killed her other than the defendant.” Wilkins’s body was found on Tottenham High Road at 6.30am on 24 August.
The jury was told that DNA evidence tied Levy to the killing of Valencia-Trujillo and that the killing was sexually motivated.
Valencia-Trujillo was vulnerable and living in south-east London, the court was told. Her body was found in a stairwell of Wendover House, a largely condemned block of flats in Walworth.
The jury heard that the first victim, who survived and cannot be named for legal reasons, had been trafficked into the UK. Little told the court: “The first of the women encountered by the defendant in time was not killed but instead was left unconscious and left for dead having been assaulted, raped and notably strangled.”
Little told the jury that in the car park the woman asked for payment and Levy said he would take her for a drink and dinner. He said Levy then attacked her, jumping on her with such force that her clavicle was broken.
Little told the jury: “The man put a finger down her throat so she could not make any noise” and she lost consciousness.
The woman did not report the attack to police at first, the jury heard, but did so several days later after being stopped by police on a different matter. She was withdrawing from heroin and only spoke to police to give a full statement six months later. The woman knew Levy and correctly identified where he lived, later picking him out of a police lineup, the court heard.
Little told the jury there were similarities between all three attacks. “So that, in just a few sentences, is what this case is all about. A series of attacks upon vulnerable women who either undertook sex work or who by reason of drug addiction would sometimes perform sexual services for money and/or drugs. Therefore a series of attacks committed by the same predatory serial sexual attacker in a similar way.”
The trial judge, Mr Justice Lucraft KC, told the jury that Levy was blind in one eye and so may wear sunglasses and also may need an intermediary during court proceedings.
Family and friends of some of the women Levy is alleged to have attacked watched in court as the case opened.
Levy’s barrister, Siobhan Grey KC, said while he had sex with all three women, he did not harm them. “We say to you that just because one man over a period of eight months had sexual intercourse with three sex workers does not mean that he has intended to harm them or kill them,” she said.
The jury was told that in September 2021 Levy was convicted of sexual assault and sexual assault by penetration committed in 2018, and that in February he was convicted of 11 sexual assaults from April 2022 to May 2025.
Levy denies two counts of murder, two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and intentional strangulation. The trial continues.
