Arabic version: إخفاقات الشرطة أبقت سايمون ليفي حراً لمهاجمة النساء

According to BBC News, convicted sex offender Simon Levy was left free to murder two women, rape another and sexually assault others after a series of failures by police, prosecutors and courts. A jury at the Old Bailey found Levy guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in London last year, as well as violently raping a woman in a car park.

Levy, 40, was on bail for sex assaults on London trains when he attacked the three women and later committed further assaults on public transport. The Metropolitan Police had downgraded him from a high-risk to a medium-risk sex offender when he was released in August 2024, despite being responsible for monitoring him. Two Met officers are under investigation by the Independent Office of Police Conduct over the decision.

The Met said it accepted that Wilkins’s life could have been saved and had apologised to her family. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth described a “collective system failure” and a “tragedy beyond words”. The force also closed an investigation into a rape committed by Levy in January 2025 despite the possibility that he could have been identified, and did not treat Valencia-Trujillo’s death in March 2025 as murder until after Levy killed again.

British Transport Police said delays in its investigation of Levy’s transport assaults were “absolutely wasn’t good enough”, with Detective Chief Superintendent Pete Fulton attributing them to incompetence by two officers who have moved roles. The Crown Prosecution Service apologised for shortcomings in efforts to have Levy remanded in custody. Levy was convicted in February of sexually assaulting 10 women on London public transport between October 2023 and May 2025.