Sex predator admits killing retired civil servant just weeks before he murdered barmaid with broken bottle

A SEX predator who murdered a barmaid today admitted killing a retired civil servant in her home just weeks earlier.

Catherine Burke, 55, was found bound and gagged at her £700k north London home after cops burst into her house in November 2017.

PA:Press Association

Lewis was jailed for life for Ms Tudos’ murder, and today admitted the murder of Ms Burke[/caption]

Originally from Galway, Ireland, Ms Burke had lived at the property in Hill Road, Muswell Hill, for around 20 years.

Kasim Lewis, 32, of no fixed address, appeared at the Old Bailey this afternoon where he pleaded guilty to her murder.

He had been due to stand trial this week having previously denied involvement in the killing.

Ms Burke’s brutal death came weeks before bar worker Iuliana Tudos was killed by Lewis.

The sexual predator pounced on Ms Tudos as she was walking home on Christmas Eve 2017, before binding her hands and legs with cable ties and mutilating her with a broken bottle.

Worried friends launched a desperate search for the Moldovan-born barmaid when she failed to show up for Christmas festivities the following day.

The 22-year-old’s naked body was discovered hidden under a jacket and pieces of wood in a burnt-out shed in the park two days later.

Jailing him on that occasion, Judge Marks said the “barbaric” killing was “wicked beyond belief”.

Lewis was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years in May 2018 for her death.

He is somebody who has a tendency to use murderous violence towards lone women

Paul Jarvis

The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Richard Marks QC, remanded Lewis in custody ahead of sentencing for Ms Burke’s murder on Thursday.

At an earlier hearing Paul Jarvis, for the prosecution, said: “The evidence that links the defendant to her murder is DNA found at the scene and there is mobile telephone evidence from her showing her devices moving as it were in the direction to where the defendant was living.

“Very shortly after when we predict the killing took place – because she wasn’t discovered for a number of days between the last contact anybody had with her and when the police were able to gain access to her flat – the phones were taken by him.

“As a result of data obtained from the telephone usage it appears that those phones were active, but not actually at her address at the particular time, meaning they had left the address and at the particular time were, the Crown say, in the possession of this defendant.

“He, when arrested, had on his mobile telephone pornographic material showing, we would say, that he has a sexual interest in the sorts of things which he may well have done to Ms Burke prior to killing her.

“I do not really want to go into the graphic detail of it, but My Lord is obviously aware of the conviction for murder he has for an offence committed a matter of weeks after he is said to have murdered Catherine Burke, which the Crown says is capable of showing that he is somebody who has a tendency to use murderous violence towards lone women.”

Lewis was remanded in custody ahead of sentence on July 18.

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