Killer of Iuliana Tudos pleads guilty to murdering Catherine Burke at her home in Haringey

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man who murdered a 22-year-old woman in a London park has pleaded guilty to a second, sexually motivated murder.

Kasim Lewis, 32, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years in May 2018 for the murder of Iuliana Tudos on Christmas Eve 2017.

Tudos, who worked as a bartender at the World’s End pub in Camden, was attacked with a broken bottle in Finsbury Park as she walked home after a shift. Her naked body was found in a burned-out hut in the park three days after she disappeared.

After Lewis’s conviction for Tudos’s murder, his DNA was linked to the death of Catherine Burke, 55, who was stabbed to death in her own home in Haringey a month before.

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday, Lewis pleaded guilty to the murder of Burke on 16 November 2017.

The retired civil servant was found dead by police after concerned neighbours raised the alarm. Police found DNA linking Lewis to the scene and tracked Burke’s mobile phone in the direction of where he was living.

Explicit pornographic material was also found on the defendant’s mobile phone, the court had heard at an earlier hearing.

Lewis had a number of convictions for sexual offences and was on a sex offenders’ register for life.

Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing at the Old Bailey until Thursday. When he sentenced Lewis for Tudos’s murder, Marks described Lewis as “wicked beyond belief”.