An accused murderer allegedly struck again just months after being questioned and released by police, a court has heard.
Simon Levy, 40, is on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of raping one woman and murdering two others over an eight-month period last year.
He denies the charges.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors Levy was arrested and questioned on April 1, 2025, regarding the murder of 53-year-old Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo.
Her body was found in a stairwell in flats in south east London on March 17, 2025.
Levy allegedly killed again five months later, this time 39-year-old Sheryl Wilkins in August.
The court was told: "The defendant was arrested and interviewed on April 1, 2025, about the murder of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in the presence of his solicitor and an appropriate adult.
"He answered 'no comment' to all questions that he was asked. He was arrested and interviewed again on September 6, 2025, and again he answered no comment."
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Prosecutors allege Levy committed "a series of predatory sexual attacks in the first eight months of 2025 on three women, each in their own way very vulnerable".
The court heard the women had all engaged in sex work for money or drugs.
The prosecutor said: "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."
Levy is accused of raping one woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in January 2025.
This was before the two killings.
The prosecutor said: "(This was) 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 we say by the same predatory serial sexual attacker in a similar way."
Prosecutors alleged both murders were sexually motivated and while sexual activity with the women may have started consensually, it did not remain so.
Levy, of Beaufoy Road, Tottenham, has pleaded not guilty to the murders.
He has also denied two charges of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent, and non-fatal suffocation against the surviving woman.
Ms Valencia-Trujillo was found dead in a largely disused block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in Southwark on March 17, 2025.
Ms Wilkins was found by police collapsed near High Road, Tottenham, at 6.30am on August 24, 2025, in the same car park where the January rape allegedly took place.
Jurors were told the woman Levy allegedly raped was left "as good as for dead" after an attack by Levy.
She claimed he jumped on her with all his weight, breaking her collarbone, and raped her while covering her face and grabbing at her throat.
Four days after the alleged attack, she was arrested for breach of a community order while on her way to the hospital for treatment for the injury to her collarbone.
She told police she had been raped but was not well enough to be interviewed at the time because she was withdrawing from heroin.
The court heard that in September that year, the woman was interviewed and described how she thought she was going to die during the alleged rape as she could not breathe and lost consciousness.
The Old Bailey was told the physical description she gave and details of the address where the man lived matched Levy, and she had picked him out in an identification parade.
In a police interview, he claimed the sex was consensual and denied having hurt her.
Ms Valencia-Trujillo was found in the stairwell of a large, mostly condemned block of flats, Wendover House, on March 17, 2025.
She was found lying face down in a landing area, with injuries to her face and no pulse, and her trousers were not fully pulled up.
Levy had lived nearby for a number of months in 2023 and prosecutors claim this means he would have known the area.
His blood was found on a pipe in the stairwell area near where her body was found.
Prosecutors said: "Something caused him to bleed at the very location where Carmenza was killed. That is, we say, no coincidence."
DNA from his semen was also found on her body, the jury was told.
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