We need to talk about violence against sex workers

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This episode contains conversation about rape, assault and violence. You can contact Rape Crisis for free on 0808 500 2222. 

Do you know the names Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins? 

They are the two women murdered by serial rapist and multiple sex offender Simon Levy. In one of the worst cases of repeated failures by the Met Police, the British Transport Police, and the CPS, Levy was allowed to sexually assault and attack countless women, culminating in the deaths of Carmenza and Sheryl. 

Why were there so many police failures, and why aren’t their names more widely known? The answer to both these questions perhaps lies here: because both women were involved in sex work. 

In sentencing remarks, it was acknowledged that Levy picked sex workers as his victims because he believed he could get away with it. Certain women who experience sexual violence are more readily granted empathy, legitimacy and support by society and the media: if they’re not on drugs, if they’re not dressed provocatively, if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But what about a woman who sells sex? Do we think of them as a different kind of victim? 

And when it comes to the authorities: women who sell sex face endemic levels of violence, but are often reluctant to report to the police for a variety of reasons. They’re not taken seriously, they’ve experienced violence at the hands of police officers, they’re scared of being arrested for other aspects of their life, such as migrant status. And not only that, but police can profit from raids, arrests and convictions for prostitution.

It was only in 2024 that Iain Packer, another serial violent offender, was jailed for the 2005 murder of Emma Caldwell and a catalogue of sexual violence against vulnerable women and sex workers. The case exposed dismissive attitudes from police towards women selling sex, and a normalisation of violence against sex workers. But 20 years since Emma’s death, Simon Levy was left to carry out the same violence as Iain Packer. So why did he – like so many sexual predators before him – assume that he could harm women involved in sex work with impunity?

Joining us this episode is Niki Adams from the English Collective of Prostitutes and Lisa Longstaff from Women Against Rape. 

This episode is hosted and produced by Mat