A British man was convicted of the murder of two sex workers, having previously attacked several women in London, while police and prosecutors admitted to making a series of mistakes that allowed him to escalate his actions. At the same time, there is concern in Britain that the actual number of his victims is even higher.
Specifically, Simon Levy, a 40-year-old man who is nearly blind, was found guilty of the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Cheryl Wilkins, in August 2025, as well as for the rape and assault of a third woman in January of the same year.
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In April 2025, police arrested Levi as a suspect in the murder of 53-year-old Valencia-Trujillo, but they released him—and he went on to sexually assault five women on trains in London, until he killed 39-year-old Wilkins five months later.
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Deputy Inspector Kevin Southworth of the Metropolitan Police told the BBC that he believed Wilkins’s life could have been saved and offeredan apology from her family. The Metropolitan Police (Met) filed a self-referral with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) because in 2024 “downgraded” Levi from a “high-risk” sex offender to a “medium-risk” one.
According to the Met, the postmortem examination of Valencia-Trujillo did not establish a definitive cause of death, and so Levi was released because the police could not prove that a criminal act had taken place.
Levi had been arrested in 2024 and again in early 2025 by the Transportation Police (BTP) for assaults on women on trains, but in all cases he was released on bail—even after being named a suspect in the murder of the 53-year-old woman.
Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Liza Ramsaran stated that “information regarding the bail” was not provided to the court, though she acknowledged that the authorities’ actions did not meet the standards expected by the public and the victims’ families.
BTP Deputy Chief Charlie Doyle also acknowledged that the initial investigation was not conducted quickly enough, but procedures have now been modified so that “repeat offenders are dealt with swiftly and effectively.”
Levi had been convicted in February, in a separate trial, of sexually assaulting 10 women on London trains. He was also found guilty of another assault, on a correctional officer, in April 2022, after he had been imprisoned for yet another assault in 2018.
SOURCE: Proto Thema
