British serial attacker gets whole life term for two murders after repeated police failures

A London court sentenced a serial sex offender to spend the rest of his life in prison on Wednesday, following his conviction for two murders and a rape carried out during an escalating pattern of sexual violence that police and prosecutors repeatedly failed to stop.

Simon Levy, 40, was found guilty last week of murdering Carmenza Valencia Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins in August 2025, along with raping and seriously assaulting a third woman in January of that year.

Police had arrested Levy multiple times over sexual assaults against women on crowded commuter trains before eventually detaining him on suspicion of killing 53 year old Valencia Trujillo in April 2025. Authorities released him after that arrest, and he went on to sexually assault five more women before killing 39 year old Wilkins in a violent attack. London’s Metropolitan Police said officers released Levy at the time because they could not confirm whether a third party had been involved in Valencia Trujillo’s death. Commissioner Mark Rowley told reporters the force “could have done better, definitely,” while also arguing that the broader justice system needs to perform more effectively.

The case, along with the string of institutional failures that allowed Levy to keep offending, has drawn sharp criticism, coming months after a report published in December warned that British police must intervene earlier when dealing with predatory behavior patterns. Harriet Wistrich, chief executive of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said the combination of failures documented in this case offers alarming evidence that the criminal justice system is breaking down.

Judge Mark Lucraft described Levy during sentencing as someone who ruthlessly exploits others to satisfy his own sexual desires, handing down a whole life order for the murders of both Valencia Trujillo and Wilkins. Levy was also sentenced for two counts of rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and intentional strangulation connected to the case involving the third woman.

Separately, Levy was convicted in February of sexually assaulting ten women aboard London trains between October 2023 and May 2025, including six attacks that occurred in early 2025, along with an eleventh charge involving the sexual assault of a prison officer in April 2022.

British Transport Police arrested Levy on separate occasions in 2024 and early 2025, including once when he became a suspect in the rape case and in Valencia Trujillo’s murder, but he was granted bail each time. The Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the police watchdog over its 2024 decision to downgrade Levy to a medium risk offender, while British Transport Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have also acknowledged shortcomings in how they handled the case.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement that he was appalled both by Levy’s crimes and by the failures across multiple agencies that allowed them to continue, calling for a multi agency review aimed at preventing similar failures in the future.