Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 11

2018 Victim Blames Police Failures for Letting Simon Levy Attack 14 More Women and Kill 2

Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 11

2018 Victim Blames Police Failures for Letting Simon Levy Attack 14 More Women and Kill 2

Q: How did a known predator use a police-returned travelcard to commute to his next murder while out on bail?

He was able to do so because police repeatedly handed back a stolen Oyster travelcard that gave him free, anonymous movement across London even though he was already a known sexual predator and later on bail. The card had originally been lost by a London bus driver at Notting Hill Carnival in August 2024 and, despite being reported missing, it was not deactivated. Levy obtained it and used it to travel across the Tube and rail network while carrying out a string of sexual assaults. When British Transport Police arrested him in November 2024 over those attacks, officers failed to recognise the card was stolen and returned it to him. Reporting says it was clearly marked as a staff pass. That failure was repeated. Levy still had the pass when he was arrested again in April 2025 on suspicion of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo. If police had checked the card’s journey history, it would have shown travel to Elephant and Castle, near where she was killed, on the day of the murder. Instead, he was released and allowed to keep using it. The travelcard then helped him continue moving around London while on bail, committing further assaults and, according to reporting, using it in connection with the first murder. British Transport Police later admitted missed opportunities and said officers had been moved from their roles because of incompetence. Critics said returning the pass effectively facilitated his offending by preserving the means he used to commute to attacks.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 11

Laura, who Simon Levy sexually assaulted in 2018, told the BBC police and the wider justice system let him stay free long enough to attack 14 more women and murder two.
2018 officers at Notting Hill Carnival initially turned her away, she said, even though she and a friend had a photo of Levy; the Met said a crime report was created the next day and he was later identified and arrested.
2021 brought Levy’s conviction for assaulting Laura and another woman, but he was jailed for three years and later released on licence despite sexually assaulting a prison officer.
Friday’s verdict found Levy guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins and raping another woman in 2025; he had already been convicted earlier this year of sexually assaulting 11 other women between 2023 and 2025.
Laura said an earlier 2017 case that ended without charges—now seen by the CPS and Met as a mistake—shows how repeated failures to act against violence against women had fatal consequences.