A man accused of murdering two women in London and raping a third is a serial sex offender, the Old Bailey has heard.

Simon Levy, 40, from Tottenham, north London, is accused of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 54, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39 and raping and attacking a third woman – charges he denies.

At the start of his trial on Monday, the court heard Levy had been convicted of some 13 sexual assaults committed since July 2018.

The court was also told that Levy was arrested in April 2025 in relation to the first murder, months before allegedly committing the second murder in August 2025.

Prosecutor, Tom Little KC said that, in September 2021 Levy was convicted, following a trial, of sexual assault committed in July 2018 and sexual assault by penetration committed in August 2018.

He added that, in February this year, Levy was convicted of a series of sexual assaults on different women, namely 11 sexual assaults between April 2022 and May 2025.

He said that six of those offences occurred in first five months of 2025 and were therefore contemporaneous with offences in this trial.

“So a raft of offences including sexual touching and activity which was not consensual. That tells you everything you need to know about his attitude and approach to women.”

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing

Little said the three women to whom this trial relates were either sex workers or on occasions would perform sexual services in return for money or drugs.

“That is no coincidence. 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,” Little added.

The prosecutor alleged both murders were sexually motivated and that while sexual activity may have started consensually, it did not remain so.

He said the surviving victim had been trafficked into the UK and was raped twice by Levy in January 2025 in a car park in Tottenham close to where Levy lived.

Little said the woman was “left unconscious and left for dead having been assaulted, raped and notably strangled”.

He said that, during the attack, the woman “thought she was going to die”.

Jurors were told Levy allegedly jumped on the woman with all his weight, breaking her collarbone, before raping her while covering her face and grabbing her throat.

Four days after the alleged attack she was arrested for breach of a community order while on her way to hospital for treatment for the injury to her collarbone.

She told police that she had been raped, but was not well enough to be interviewed at the time because she was withdrawing from heroin.

In September 2025 the woman was interviewed and described how she thought she was going to die during the alleged raped as she could not breathe and lost consciousness.

The Old Bailey was told that the physical description she gave and details of the address where the man lived matched Levy, and that she had picked him out in an identification parade.

Levy’s defence lawyer, Siobhan Grey, told the court that the alleged rape victim “is not telling the truth about the alleged attack and that her credibility, reliability and honesty are called into question”.

Grey said the woman had picked out the defendant in an identification parade because she had known the defendant for years and not because he attacked her.

Valencia-Trujillo, the first woman killed, was found dead in the stairwell of a derelict building in Walworth, south London, on 17 March 2025.

Little said Levy had travelled to the area the previous day, when Valencia-Trujillo was last seen alive, and used to the live in the area.

He said Levy’s DNA was found at the crime scene and on Valencia-Trujillo’s body.

The cause of Valencia-Trujillo’s death was “unascertained”. The post-mortem examination found no features of natural disease which could have caused or contributed to her death and the deceased had taken cocaine over the years.

Little said Levy met the third victim, Wilkins, in Tottenham in August 2025.

He said they walked to the same car park where the first woman had been assaulted, raped and strangled seven months before.

Little said they were together for a lengthy period of time before Levy was seen to leave.

Jurors were shown CCTV of Levy and Wilkins going into the B&M car park at 00:57 BST and behind a wall, where the surviving victim was allegedly assaulted.

He said nobody else went behind a wall in the car park until Wilkins’ body was found there the next morning by police.

Levy was captured on CCTV leaving the area at 01:52, crossing the main road next to the store. Wilkins was found dead by two police officers on patrol at 06:30.

A postmortem examination found 83 injuries on Wilkins’ body, with some, Little said, “plainly” from the evening in question.

A blue North Face jacket recovered from Levy’s home matched the one he was wearing on CCTV, the court heard. Blood matching Wilkins’ DNA was found on the jacket and semen matching Levy’s DNA was found on Wilkins’ underpants.

Following his arrest, Levy said in a prepared statement: “I had consensual sex with a female in the car park. She already had bruising and marks on her prior to her approaching me. She was awake and conscious when I left her. At no point did I suffocate, strangle or assault her in any way.”

Little told the jury: “The defendant’s claim that Sheryl Wilkins had injuries on her body already is not correct, it’s a lie.”

He said CCTV and the injuries found after her interaction with Levy showed that to be incorrect.

The trial continues.

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