Serial Tube sex attacker's reign of terror could have been stopped seven years earlier if police had linked investigations into three separate sex assaults just months apart

Published: 00:17, 9 August 2026 | Updated: 00:17, 9 August 2026 Simon Levy’s reign of terror could have been stopped seven years earlier if police had linked investigations into three separate sex assaults just months apart. Instead, the depraved sex predator was allowed to remain on the streets to commit a series of violent attacks, which escalated from groping to rape, suffocation and eventually a double murder. Detectives believe dozens of women targeted by Levy – many travelling in packed rush-hour Tube carriages – have never been identified, and they are appealing for victims to come forward. Levy was first reported to the Metropolitan Police for two attacks in July and August 2018, both in north London, but wasn’t charged for another two years. It can now be revealed British Transport Police also received a sex assault allegation against Levy in 2018 for an incident in Battersea, south London, but never brought charges against him.  Campaigners and policing experts believe this pattern of three ‘red-flag’ offences within months should have been enough to take him off the streets. Incredibly, the criminal justice system went on to miss at least 14 opportunities to lock him away. Police body cam footage showing Levy's arrest. Levy was first reported to the Metropolitan Police for two attacks in July and August 2018, both in north London , but wasn’t charged for another two years Detectives believe dozens of women targeted by Levy – many travelling in packed rush-hour Tube carriages – have never been identified Yesterday, former Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham, an authority on violence against women and girls, told the BBC’s Today programme that police and Crown Prosecution Service failures were particularly shocking because they were ‘failures we’ve seen before’. She added: ‘Escalation behaviours, red flag behaviours – so-called lower-level offences – are not being recognised for the danger that they are. Vulnerable women not necessarily being seen, risks being downgraded by police. ‘What’s so extraordinary about this case is it’s not one or two missed opportunities that could have brought him to justice, that could have had him locked up behind bars and no longer a threat to women and girls, it was an extraordinary succession.’  Campaigner Lisa Squire, whose 21-year-old daughter Libby was raped and murdered by Pawel Relowicz in Hull seven years ago, told the programme Levy’s early pattern of attacks should have been identified by police. She added: ‘The offences he was committing on public transport – these are precursor offences and we need to be looking at those far more seriously.’ Levy, who lived with his mother in Tottenham, first appeared on the Met’s radar after sexually molesting a woman at a party in Camden, north-west London, in July 2018. Pictured: Sheryl Wilkins (left) who Levy killed in Tottenham in August 2025, after being granted bail for murder and Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo (right) who Levy murdered in south London in March last year The next month the 40-year-old pestered a woman on the Tube and followed her to the Notting Hill Carnival where he committed a sex assault by penetration. But it wasn’t until September 2021 he was finally convicted of both offences – serving half a three-year sentence in Brixton prison during which he assaulted a female officer. While out on licence, he attacked a woman in Canada Water. But by August 2024 he was once again free and was arrested after two more women reported him to police. In January 2025, he raped and suffocated a sex worker, leaving her for dead. Two months later, he killed 53-year-old Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo by suffocation. On August 28, while still on bail, he murdered Sheryl Wilkins, 39. He was caught by a facial recognition camera and arrested. Last week, a jury at the Old Bailey convicted him of both murders, along with two rapes, intentional suffocation, grievous bodily harm and 13 sexual assaults. He is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.