Simon Levy case highlights justice system's failures toward sex workers
The sentencing of serial offender Simon Levy for murdering two women reveals a broader pattern of police mistrust and neglect toward women in sex work, who campaigners say are routinely failed by the justice system.
Simon Levy, a registered sex offender with a history dating back to 2018, was sentenced last week to a rare whole life tariff for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins. Sentencing remarks noted that Levy deliberately targeted women involved in sex work because he believed he could harm them without consequence.
The case has drawn renewed attention to how the justice system treats women who sell sex. National Ugly Mugs, a charity supporting sex workers, processed over a thousand reports of violence against women last year, but only a small fraction of those affected agreed to share the information with police — reflecting deep distrust of law enforcement among this group.
Policing tactics blamed for increased risk
Women who worked alongside Levy's victims had complained about police treatment for a year before Wilkins's death. A national framework originally designed to tackle organised crime was applied to street-based sex work, creating 'closure zones' where women were arrested and fined for entering certain areas. Campaigners say this pushed women into more isolated, poorly lit locations and broke up informal safety arrangements where women worked in pairs to watch out for one another.
Wilkins had been displaced from her usual location before she was killed, and other women who worked nearby expressed anger, viewing her death as a direct consequence of the policing approach. Following the murders, London's Metropolitan Police sent specialist officers to the area to rebuild trust and connect women with support for safety, housing and healthcare.
A recurring pattern
The case echoes a similar one from two years ago, when another serial offender was jailed for murdering and assaulting more than twenty vulnerable women in Glasgow, exposing chronic police failures and a dismissive attitude toward sex workers. Researchers point to years of shrinking funding for protective programmes and monitoring of registered sex offenders. Debate continues over whether decriminalising prostitution or criminalising buyers would better protect women, while successful local models — such as one treating violence against sex workers as a hate crime — have not been adopted nationally.
