Justice agencies admit serious failings that left Simon Levy free to rape and murder women

On Friday, 7th August 2026, Simon Levy was found guilty of raping a woman and murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, with justice agencies admitting to serious failings that left him free to commit these horrific acts of violence against women.

Levy was first jailed for sexual offences in 2021. After his release, the British Transport Police arrested Levy for a series of sexual assaults against women on trains. However, serious errors were made which caused delays to charging him, and he was released on bail. While on bail, he raped a woman and murdered Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo. He was arrested by the Met Police on suspicion of Carmenza’s murder, but again released on bail.

While on bail, Levy carried out further sexual assaults, taking the total to 10 reported incidents. Although he was charged with most of these offences, Levy was one again bailed and went on to murder Sheryl Wilkins.

Agencies across the criminal justice system have come under scrutiny for failing to take appropriate action to hold Levy accountable for his offending and prevent further harm:

• The survivor of rape, on reporting what happened to the police and seeking treatment for her injuries, was instead arrested for breaching a community order.
• The Crown Prosecution Service admitted to failing to provide three court hearings following Levy’s arrest for multiple sexual assaults on public transport with vital information that Levy had been arrested for Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo’s murder, that he was a suspect in a 2024 rape and had a string of prior convictions for sexual assault.
• Deputy assistant commissioner at the Met Police, Kevin Southworth, said that the second woman murdered by Levy, Sheryl Wilkins, would probably be alive today had there not been “collective system failures”.

Responding to this, Deniz Uğur, Deputy Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said:

“Our thoughts and solidarity are with the victims and survivors of this appalling violence, and their loved ones. Every victim of male violence is one too many and we demand urgent action to prevent women and girls from being harmed in this way.

This is a deeply upsetting case which highlights failings across the justice system, and calls into question why clear patterns of offending appear to have been minimised or missed entirely by criminal justice agencies. 

Serious questions must be asked about why someone suspected of such egregious serial offending was allowed to continue perpetrating harm to women for such a long time without the risk of intensification behind the pattern of offending being identified. This could have saved the lives of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, and prevented the other women from being subjected to life-altering traumatic sexual assaults.

We know that many serial offenders display a pattern of offending that can include sexual assault on public transport and indecent exposure. These are often wrongly treated as offences of lesser seriousness, despite all violence against women and girls being deeply harmful. We know that serial perpetrators of these sexual offences can go on to commit rape and even murder. Early identification and intervention is crucial in stopping women and girls from being harmed and losing their lives.

The litany of failings here are so widespread and serious. Critical opportunities to intervene were missed, despite Simon Levy being a known violent offender. It is hard to believe that 5 years after the murder of Sarah Everard, Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, with grand promises made by the police and justice agencies to take their duties to stop violence against women seriously, such catastrophic decisions were made – decisions that were largely not to take action and leave a known prolific offender free to rape and murder.

The responsibility lies not only in one agency but across the justice system. Details of the police response to one of the survivor’s reports call into question whether rape myths, discrimination and stereotypes played a part in the appalling service she received. It is well-established that perpetrators of sexual offences and abuse often target women and girls they perceive as being vulnerable. This can include victims of trafficking and exploitation and others made vulnerable by their immigration status.

Decision making and information sharing by the CPS and magistrate must also be urgently reviewed to determine why a man with a known history of sexual offending, who is being investigated for murder and has been charged with multiple other sexual offences, was not held on remand.

As countless inquiries and reviews of the police and justice system response to violence against women have found, there must be early intervention and prevention-focused responses to violence against women, particularly regarding management of known serial offenders. The cost of not doing so is women losing their lives. The series of choices not to act in this case played a significant role in making these women, and therefore all of us, unsafe.”

ENDS