Catastrophic errors left a prolific and proven sex offender free before he murdered two women in London, it can be revealed.
On Friday an Old Bailey jury found Simon Levy, 40, guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later.
Levy was on bail as a suspect for the first murder when he committed the second, with police saying they lacked the evidence to charge him.
Months before his first killing, police had arrested Levy for sexual assaults of women on trains, but made errors that delayed his charging. While on bail he committed more attacks, taking the number to 10 across London. He was charged for most, yet remained free and committed his second murder.
Prosecutors also admit bungling efforts to have Levy remanded to prison, failing to give three court hearings key information that showed the full extent of Levy’s potential danger to women.
But even before the train attacks, police and prosecutors knew Levy was a proven danger.
He was first jailed for sexual violence in 2021 and while in jail he sexually assaulted a female prison officer.
After his release he committed sexual assaults on trains across London from 2023 to 2025. He was also the prime suspect in a rape case.
Then in January, March and August 2025, Levy, from Tottenham, north London, savagely attacked three women who provided sexual services, and left them for dead.
Levy was convicted of the murder of Valencia-Trujillo, 53, in a partially disused tower block in south-east London on 17 March 2025.
The scene of the killing was close to where Levy had lived on release from prison after his first convictions for sexual offences.
The jury also found him guilty of the murder of Wilkins, 39, in a car park in Tottenham on 24 August 2025.
And he was convicted of raping and attacking a third woman, 35, in January 2025, who survived. She was attacked in the same Tottenham car park, eight minutes’ walk from the home Levy shared with his mother and sister.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Metropolitan police and British Transport Police (BTP) have all admitted errors.
Kevin Southworth, a deputy assistant commissioner at the Met, which investigated the killings, described Levy as “a prolific, predatory monster”.
He said Wilkins, the second murder victim, would probably have been alive if not for the errors which he blamed on “collective system failures”.
The litany of failings can only be reported now that Levy’s murder trial has ended, leading to the lifting of reporting restrictions on that and a trial earlier this year.
A jury in February convicted him of 10 sexual assaults on trains, including one on a daughter travelling with her mother, as well as the attack on a female prison officer while he was in jail.
Police first arrested Levy for a number of attacks on trains in November 2024, with CCTV tying him to the scene of the assaults. Six more occurred in the first five months of 2025.
The errors and questionable decisions included:
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The CPS admitted errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025, which ended in Levy remaining free. It would not specify publicly what those were, but a source authorised to speak for the organisation said they included failing to mention he had been arrested for Valencia-Trujillo’s murder, and that it could find no record or mention of Levy’s past sexual assault convictions, nor that he was a suspect in a 2024 rape.
The CPS said: “We accept there was relevant information regarding bail that was not provided to the court when bail applications were being considered. Our actions fell short of the standards that victims, families and the public are entitled to expect … We could and should have taken a more robust approach to representations about bail.”
By May 2025, police wanted Levy remanded, fearing he posed a “high risk of reoffending” with his crimes “escalating”.
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Levy failed to attend three crown court hearings for the train attacks, and the CPS accepts there is no evidence of a warrant being sought for his detention. For two he claimed illness, for the other that he was not informed.
His final non-appearance in crown court was on 11 August 2025. A fortnight later he murdered Wilkins.
A CPS source said individuals involved in the Levy case had been disciplined.
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The assaults on the London tube network and trains were investigated by BTP. Officers arrested Levy, who was travelling on a stolen Oyster travel card, but handed it back to him, unaware it was stolen. With it he travelled to south London to commit his first murder, and carried out further sexual assaults on trains.
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BTP admitted the charging of Levy for his sexual assaults on trains in November 2024 was held up because of a delay in holding an identification parade after his arrest. It meant his bail was extended and during this delay he attacked and raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo, a mother of two.
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BTP identified him as a suspect and charged him but never searched his home. Peter Fulton, BTP’s head of crime, said: “There’s a fine line between going fishing and breaching someone’s human rights.” He said that every woman who reported Levy for attacking them on a train saw him charged and convicted. When the Met, which investigated the murders, searched Levy’s home, evidence was found about his attack on the prison officer.
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The police watchdog has placed two Met officers under investigation over whether Levy was supervised correctly as a person on the sex offender register. A constable is under investigation for gross misconduct, meaning he could be dismissed. The other officer, under investigation for misconduct, is a detective sergeant.
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BTP said it had not referred its errors to the police watchdog. Instead it has moved one officer, who it says delayed the holding of the ID parade, out of investigations, and given a supervisor words of advice.
The failings come despite decades of promises from police chiefs, senior prosecutors, courts and government that the criminal justice system will better protect women from male violence after a series of scandals.
Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said an independent inquiry was needed, while Andrea Simon, London’s victim’s commissioner, said: “There are striking parallels with other cases where escalating risk was not acted upon, with devastating and preventable consequences.
“Critical opportunities to intervene were missed, despite him being a known violent offender.”
Levy, who is blind in one eye, appeared in court wearing sunglasses. He denied all charges and will be sentenced at a later date.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
