Killer serving life for murder admits stabbing civil servant to death

Sex-crazed killer, 32, serving life for brutal murder of barmaid, 22, ADMITS binding, gagging and stabbing retired civil servant, 55, to death in her home just weeks earlier

A killer serving life in prison for the brutal murder of a barmaid today admitted stabbing a retired civil servant to death in her own home just weeks earlier.

Catherine Burke, 55, was found bound and gagged at her £700,000 north London home after police forced entry to the house on 16 November 2017.

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

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

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

Kasim Lewis today admitted the murder of retired civil servant Catherine Burke in Muswell Hill, north London. He is already serving a life sentence for killing a barmaid in Finsbury Park

Last year, Lewis was jailed for life and ordered to serve 29 years for killing Iuliana Tudos

Lewis was previously jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years in May 2018 for the barbaric murder of barmaid Iuliana Tudos in Finsbury Park.

The sex predator pounced on Ms Tudos as she was walking home on Christmas Eve 2017, weeks after Ms Burke’s murder, binding her hands and legs with cable ties and mutilating her with a broken bottle.

Worried friends launched a desperate search for petite 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. 

Judge Richard Marks QC today remanded Lewis in custody ahead of sentence on Thursday.

Ms Burke was found bound, gagged and murdered at her home in north London in 2017

Ms Burke’s son Niall was studying in Brighton at the time of her murder. Ms Burke is pictured, left, at a party. Ms Tudos (right) was found naked and slashed after she was assaulted with a broken bottle on her way home from work

At an earlier hearing Paul Jarvis, for the prosecution, said: ‘The victim in this case is Catherine Burke and she was found stabbed to death at her home address on Thursday 16 November 2017.

‘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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