A 40-year-old man was found guilty on Friday at London's Old Bailey of murdering two women after a series of police and prosecution blunders left him free to attack again. Simon Levy was convicted of killing Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. He was already a convicted sex offender with a history of sexual assaults on trains, and authorities had been pursuing him on multiple charges when the killings occurred.
The Crown Prosecution Service admitted making errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025 that resulted in Levy remaining on bail. According to a source authorised to speak for the organisation, these failures included not telling the court that Levy had been arrested on suspicion of Valencia-Trujillo's murder, and providing no record of his previous sexual assault convictions or his status as a suspect in a 2024 rape. The CPS said it accepted that relevant information about bail was not given to the court and that its actions fell short of the standards victims and the public should expect. It said it could and should have taken a more robust approach to bail representations.
By May 2025, police wanted Levy remanded in custody over fears he posed a high risk of reoffending and that his crimes were escalating. Levy missed three crown court hearings related to train assaults, with the CPS acknowledging there was no evidence that a warrant was sought for his detention. For two hearings he said he was ill, and for the third he said he had not been informed. His final failure to appear was on 11 August 2025, and about two weeks later he murdered Wilkins.
The British Transport Police, which investigated the train assaults, also faced criticism. Officers had arrested Levy while he was travelling on a stolen Oyster card but returned the card to him, unaware it was stolen. Using it, he travelled to south London to commit his first murder and carried out further sexual assaults on trains. BTP admitted that charging Levy for the sexual assaults in November 2024 was delayed because an identification parade was not held promptly. This extended his bail, and during the delay he attacked and raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo, a mother of two.
Although BTP had identified Levy as a suspect and charged him, officers never searched his home. Peter Fulton, BTP's head of crime, said there was a fine line between conducting a speculative search and breaching someone's human rights. He added that every woman who reported Levy for attacking them on a train saw him charged and convicted. When the Metropolitan Police, which investigated the murders, eventually searched Levy's home, evidence was found relating to an attack on a prison officer.
The police watchdog has placed two Metropolitan Police officers under investigation over whether Levy was properly supervised as a registered sex offender. A constable is being investigated for gross misconduct, which could lead to dismissal, and a detective sergeant for misconduct. BTP, however, has not referred its own errors to the watchdog. Instead, it moved one officer, who was responsible for delaying the identification parade, out of investigations and gave a supervisor advice. A CPS source said individuals involved in Levy's case had been disciplined.