Warning: this account contains descriptions of sexual violence.
A jury at the Old Bailey has convicted Simon Levy of the murders of Carmenza Valencia Trujillo, 54, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, and of the violent rape of another woman. The verdicts follow a pattern of assaults and rapes on London public transport and elsewhere that prosecutors say continued while Levy was repeatedly free on bail and under police supervision.
The case has exposed a series of missteps across police forces, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the courts that left a known offender able to roam the capital and attack women. Senior officers and agencies have since apologised and described the events as a collective system failure; the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has opened investigations into Metropolitan Police handling of Levy’s case, and British Transport Police (BTP) officers have been moved after internal reviews identified failures.
What happened
Levy, a jobless man who lived with his mother, had an established record of sexual offending. In 2021 he served a custodial sentence for sexual assaults at public events. After release he was subject to licence conditions and police monitoring. In 2023 he was classed as a high-risk sex offender, but after a period in custody in 2024 the Metropolitan Police downgraded him to medium risk when responsibility for managing him passed solely to the Met.
Between late 2023 and May 2025 he carried out multiple sexual assaults on the Tube and other public transport. He also sexually assaulted a prison officer in HMP Brixton in April 2022; that offence was captured on CCTV but police enquiries were slow and the case was not charged until October 2025. During the same period he was arrested, charged and repeatedly released on bail in relation to other sexual offences.
Delays, missed opportunities and poor decisions
Investigations into Levy’s offending were beset by delays and missed opportunities:
– The Met downgraded Levy’s risk level after his 2024 release, a move now under IOPC scrutiny. The downgrade reduced the intensity of monitoring and resources devoted to him.
– BTP’s handling of a cluster of Tube assaults was slow. Officers did not identify Levy from available CCTV at the time and did not approach the CPS for six months. Identity parades and follow-up work were delayed, and officers later admitted the force’s response “wasn’t good enough.”
– Both the Met and BTP returned a travel card to Levy that had been stolen from a bus driver. That card allowed him to travel without paying and was used while he carried out several of the assaults and to travel to locations where he later killed.
– The Met closed an investigation into a January 2025 rape even though Levy might have been identifiable, and local officers failed to classify Carmenza’s death in March 2025 as a murder or to escalate it promptly to specialist homicide detectives.
– The CPS accepts it could have acted more decisively to seek remand in custody and that relevant bail information was not always presented to the courts. At several bail hearings BTP recommended remand, yet Levy was bailed by magistrates and later by crown courts after he failed to appear and cited illness rather than triggers for arrest warrants.
– A delay of years in progressing the prison officer assault case — despite CCTV evidence and a same-day complaint by the victim — removed another early opportunity to detain Levy before further attacks.
Consequences for victims
Ten women were sexually assaulted by Levy on public transport between October 2023 and May 2025; their attacks included groping and other non-consensual touching. One woman described how the assaults stripped away her confidence and left her fearful of strangers and public spaces. Another was violently attacked in a car park: she suffered a broken collarbone, head injuries, was suffocated and raped, and later struggled to engage fully with enquiries while in a vulnerable state.
Carmenza was found with visible injuries in a stairwell of a derelict block; local officers did not initially treat the scene as a suspected homicide. When the homicide team finally took over, they identified CCTV and DNA evidence linking Levy to Carmenza, but by then he had already attacked and killed again.
Accountability and responses
Senior officers have described the sequence of events as a “tragedy beyond words.” The Met has apologised to Sheryl Wilkins’ family and accepted that her life could have been saved. BTP acknowledged “opportunities to expedite the investigation were missed” and said it has changed procedures to prioritise linked offences and repeat offenders. The CPS apologised for shortcomings in its handling of bail representations and charging timeliness.
IOPC investigators are examining whether officers acted appropriately when they downgraded Levy’s risk level and how enquiries were handled. Two BTP officers were identified as having been “incompetent” in the force’s internal review and have since been moved to different roles.
Wider lessons
The Levy case highlights how failures at multiple points — risk assessment, information sharing, timely evidence review, prosecution decisions and court bail hearings — can combine to leave the public at risk. It also shows how vulnerable victims, including women who are homeless or who use drugs, can be failed by systems that rely on timely witness cooperation and well-resourced follow-up.
Those investigating say reforms are needed in how sex offenders are risk-assessed and monitored, how linked offences are identified across forces, and how information is presented to courts when bail is being considered.
Support and further information
If you have information relevant to this story, major news organisations have set up contacts for tips and enquiries. If you have been affected by sexual violence or abuse, specialist support is available — for example, national helplines and local victim support services can provide advice and assistance. The BBC’s online Action Line and similar resources list organisations offering immediate help, counselling and safety advice.
This is an ongoing story. Independent inquiries and criminal proceedings will continue to examine who was responsible for the failures that allowed a convicted offender to attack and ultimately kill vulnerable women, and whether further systemic change is required to prevent a repetition.
