Catastrophic errors by police and prosecutors allowed a proven sex offender, Simon Levy, to remain free and murder two women in London. Levy, 40, was found guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins by an Old Bailey jury.
Levy was on bail as a suspect for the first murder when he committed the second, after police said they lacked sufficient evidence to charge him. Months before the first killing, police arrested Levy for sexual assaults of women on trains but made errors that delayed charging him.
Prosecutors admitted to bungling efforts to have Levy remanded in custody, by failing to provide three court hearings with key information demonstrating the full extent of the danger he posed to women.
Kevin Southworth, a deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan police, described Levy as a “predatory monster”. He said Wilkins, the second woman murdered by Levy, would probably have been alive were it not for what he described as “collective system failures”.
Levy was first jailed for a sexual offence in 2021. While in prison, he sexually assaulted a female prison officer. After his release, he carried out a series of sexual assaults on trains across London between 2023 and 2025.
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The British Transport Police admitted that police arrested Levy for a number of attacks on trains in November 2024.
Levy’s risk as a sex offender was known to police and prosecutors before the attacks on women travelling by train.
The consequences of these errors have been devastating for the families of the victims. The fact that Levy was able to inflict such harm after being freed by police and the courts raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in protecting women from male violence.
Levy will be sentenced on Wednesday, facing a mandatory life sentence for murder. The case has sparked widespread outrage and calls for reform, with many calling for changes to prevent similar failures in the future, particularly in regards to police reforms and handling of sex offenders.
