A senior Metropolitan police detective has admitted that Simon Levy’s second murder victim could have been saved, as the force faces questions over its handling of the serial sex attacker.
Levy, of Tottenham, north London, was found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey on Friday for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, five months apart last year. The killings came after he subjected a third woman to a brutal sex attack in the same car park where Ms Wilkins’ body was later found.
The timeline of his crimes reveals a string of errors where officials failed to stop a dangerous predator who was already a registered sex offender and was on bail as his attacks on women escalated to double murder.
Questioned on the Met’s approach to the case by the BBC, deputy assistant commissioner Kevin Southworth said: “There were opportunities here to save some of the victims from their fate.”
Regarding the murder of Ms Wilkins and whether her life could have been saved, Mr Southworth said: “I think so”.
Asked if the Met had contributed to her death, he said: “I think we have to wait for the outcome of the [police watchdog] IOPC inquiry, but certainly I’ve apologised to Sheryl Wilkins’ family – to her mother and her sister – wholeheartedly for any role that we’ve played in failing to protect her.”
Levy, 40, fatally suffocated Ms Valencia-Trujillo and Ms Wilkins in sexually motivated attacks, with Ms Valencia-Trujillo found in a largely abandoned block of flats on the Aylesbury estate in south-east London, and Ms Wilkins behind a car park wall near Tottenham High Road, north London.
The jury also found Levy guilty of two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm with intent and the non-fatal smothering of the third woman whose collarbone was broken.
Levy’s crime spree spanned from 2018 to 2025 – the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police (BTP), and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are all facing serious questions over how he was allowed to grope, rape and murder women.
The Met, BTP and Crown Prosecution Service have all admitted failings in how they dealt with Levy.
Levy was previously jailed in 2021 for groping two women in the summer of 2018, one at Notting Hill Carnival and the other at a party in Camden.
He sexually assaulted a prison guard while behind bars in 2022 but was still released the following year, going on to sexually assault a woman on the Tube in October 2023 and allegedly rape another in May 2024, for which he was recalled to prison and released again in August that year.
Levy was arrested by BTP in November 2024 for four sexual assaults on the Tube, for which he has since been separately convicted. But delays in organising an identification parade until the following April left him free to carry out the rape and first murder.
When police took details of his Oyster card, BTP officers did not realise that it had been stolen from a bus driver, meaning Levy had a free travel pass that he used on the day he murdered Ms Valencia-Trujillo.
Following her death, he was released on bail at two magistrates’ court hearings in May and June 2025, with the CPS admitting that it had not opposed bail at the first hearing, and the prosecutor had not given the court all the relevant information for consideration at the second hearing.
There were another three crown court hearings that he failed to attend for various reasons, yet no arrest warrant was requested.
Less than two weeks after a hearing on 11 August, he murdered Ms Wilkins.
The murders of Ms Valencia-Trujillo in March and Ms Wilkins in August were interspersed with sexual assaults on six women on the Tube and Overground.
An Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) spokesperson said it was investigating the management of Levy from his first conviction in September 2021 up to his arrest in September 2025.
It said: “Our independent investigation began in January following a voluntary conduct referral from the force, relating to alleged failures by two officers in his management following his prison release on licence in February 2023.
“We are examining whether action could or should have been taken to prevent his reoffending, and if all officers involved in his management followed policies, procedures, and training.
“We are also assessing whether any learning, whether individual, force-wide, or nationally or other changes should be implemented in light of the events under investigation.
“At this stage, we have served a gross misconduct notice on a police constable and a misconduct notice on a detective sergeant, which means that the actions of those officers are under investigation.
“The serving of conduct notices does not necessarily mean disciplinary proceedings will follow.”
Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing until Wednesday 12 August and remanded Levy into custody.
