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Serial Sex Offender Arrested After Two Women Were Murdered Following Authorities Failure to Keep Him in Custody
Levy, 40, was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Friday of murdering two women, Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39.
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He was also convicted of raping another woman and carrying out a serious sexual assault that left her with a broken collarbone.
Valencia-Trujillo, a grandmother, was killed in March 2025, while mother-of-four Wilkins was murdered in August of the same year.
Authorities have acknowledged several failures in their handling of Levy, including decisions that allowed him to remain on bail after he had already been suspected of serious offences.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth of the Metropolitan Police said mistakes made during hearings at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court in May and June 2025 contributed to Levy remaining free and ultimately enabled him to kill again.
He said: “There’s a collective system failure here, which has left Levy free to go on offending in this awful manner and left these victims at risk from his prolific offending, and that’s something which ourselves and colleagues across the criminal justice system will need to reflect on.
“His behaviour is self-evidently that of a very prolific serial sexual predator who seeks his sexual gratification in a number of ways, whether it’s opportunistically offending against strangers on the Underground system, or whether it’s targeting sex workers in the most horrific and harrowing fashion.
“Ultimately what we’re talking about here is a serial sexual predator who’s finally been brought to justice, but ultimately too late to help the victims of his tragic acts.”
A separate investigation is now examining whether Levy may have attacked additional women during periods when he was repeatedly released on bail.
Levy had already come to the attention of authorities several times before the two murders.
He was jailed in 2021 after being convicted of groping two women in 2018. One incident happened at Notting Hill Carnival, while another took place at a party in Camden.
While serving his sentence in 2022, Levy sexually assaulted a prison guard. Despite this, he was released the following year.
In November 2024, British Transport Police arrested Levy over four sexual assaults on the Tube. He was later convicted in connection with those offences.
However, a delay in arranging an identification parade meant the case was not progressed quickly enough. The parade eventually took place in April 2025, leaving Levy free during the period in which he allegedly raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo.
One woman who survived an attack by Levy told authorities that she had been raped and knew where her attacker lived.
Despite this information, she was not formally interviewed until after Levy had allegedly killed two women.
The delays have become a major focus of the investigation into how the case was handled.
There were also concerns over the information provided to the courts during Levy’s bail hearings.
Following Valencia-Trujillo’s death, Levy was released on bail at hearings in May and June 2025.
The CPS acknowledged that it did not oppose bail at the first hearing. At the second hearing, the prosecutor failed to provide the court with all the relevant information needed for the magistrates to properly consider whether Levy should remain in custody.
Levy subsequently missed three Crown Court hearings for different reasons, yet an arrest warrant was not requested.
On August 11, he attended another hearing. Less than two weeks later, Wilkins was murdered.
The two murders were not isolated incidents.
Between the deaths of Valencia-Trujillo and Wilkins, Levy was accused of carrying out sexual assaults against six women on London’s Tube and Overground networks.
As a convicted sex offender, he was subject to monitoring by police and probation officers. However, when officers visited him at the home he shared with his mother in March and July 2025, Levy reportedly claimed that he rarely went outside and spent his time watching YouTube and films.
Levy had also lost sight in one eye following an attack in May 2024. He used his partial sight as part of his explanation for his behaviour on crowded trains, previously claiming that his condition and the movement of passengers caused him to lose his balance and accidentally grope women.
He was ultimately linked to the sexual assault of 10 women on London’s transport network between October 2023 and May 2025.
One of Levy’s victims, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, described the shock of discovering that the man she had reported was already known to authorities.
She told the court: ‘After reporting the sexual assaults, it wasn’t long before I learned that my attacker was already known to the police for sexual violence and is a convicted sex offender.
“You could not begin to understand the horror I felt at hearing this.’
London’s Victims’ Commissioner Andrea Simon said she was appalled by the litany of failures to manage a prolific offender like Levy.
She told BBC News: “I’m keen now to see how we can uncover every single key moment that there was to assess the harm that Levy posed to women by every justice agency involved, not just the police, but every critical opportunity there was to intervene.
There should have been a far more robust assessment of risk’ at potential key moments such as when he was reported to prison and was released on licence, she suggested.
“Practitioners are trained to identify this and recognise when offenders need to be managed under a higher level” she told the BBC.
“Multi-agency public protection arrangements are meant to bring organisations such as the police, probation and prison service together so they are all working closely to manage the risk of offenders”
The jury spent 13 hours deliberating before finding Levy guilty of the charges.
He was convicted of two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and the non-fatal smothering of the surviving woman, who suffered a broken collarbone.
Relatives of the victims broke down in tears when the verdicts were announced.
Levy, who is blind in one eye and appeared in court wearing sunglasses and a pointed beard, showed little reaction as the convictions were delivered.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered that Levy remain in custody and adjourned sentencing until Wednesday, August 12.
Detective Chief Inspector Neil John of Scotland Yard described Levy as a dangerous offender and called on anyone else who may have been attacked by him to contact authorities.
Speaking outside the Old Bailey, he said: ‘Simon Levy is a dangerous and predatory offender. His crimes were calculated, cruel and deeply disturbing.
“Throughout the trial, he has shown complete disregard for the victims and victim-survivor, despite being fully aware of the lasting and devastating impact of his actions”
The murders of Valencia-Trujillo and Wilkins were carried out in different locations in London.
Valencia-Trujillo was found dead inside a largely abandoned block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in south-east London, while Wilkins was found behind a car park wall near Tottenham High Road in north London.
Both women were suffocated during attacks that prosecutors described as sexually motivated.
Valencia-Trujillo’s children remembered their mother as a woman who was full of energy and personality. She became a grandmother in 2024 and was described as a much-loved member of her community.
She was also known for her love of salsa dancing.
Wilkins’ family similarly remembered her as a much-loved woman whose absence continues to be felt by those who knew her.
The case has now prompted renewed scrutiny of how agencies identify and manage offenders considered capable of causing serious harm, particularly when several warnings and previous convictions are already on record.
