Systemic failures within the UK's criminal justice system allowed serial sex offender Simon Levy to commit murder after repeated oversights by police and courts, veteran crime reporter Rebecca Camber said.
Levy, 40, was convicted of murdering two women, Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 54, and Sheryl Wilkins, 39, whose bodies were discovered five months apart in London last year. He was also found guilty of multiple sexual assaults, including against another woman who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Camber, speaking on an exclusive episode of the Daily Mail's The Trial podcast, described the repeated instances where Levy was granted bail despite a history of sex crimes dating back to 2018 and previous convictions, including an assault on a female prison officer. She characterized the situation as one of the most significant blunders she has witnessed in 16 years of covering crime.
"Time and time again, by different agencies of the criminal justice system - police, probation, the courts - they basically let this guy get away with it," Camber stated. "As a result, two women are dead. A woman has been raped - and women using the London underground were attacked almost daily by this predator."
Levy was not arrested for over a year after his initial sexual assaults in 2018, and was subsequently bailed. He was eventually remanded in custody in August 2021. Even after assaulting a female prison officer while serving a sentence, he was automatically released at the halfway point of his three-year term in February 2023.
Upon his release and under probation supervision, Levy reportedly told officers he rarely left home due to partial blindness. However, within months, he began attacking women on the London Underground. Camber suggested that a routine police records check would have revealed he was already on bail for attacks on the Tube, but this seemingly never occurred.
In spring 2025, Levy was under suspicion for murder and had been charged with five sexual assaults on the Tube. British Transport Police detained him overnight, but magistrates released him on bail the following morning. Camber noted that despite being charged with multiple assaults and suspected of murder, Levy was again granted bail.
His pattern of offending continued, leading to further charges for sexual assaults on the Tube and breaches of bail conditions. Despite multiple court appearances, Camber highlighted instances where police failed to seek arrest warrants for his failure to appear in court. On June 21, he was granted bail yet again, leading Camber to conclude that Levy believed he was "invincible" due to the repeated decisions to allow him to remain free.
"This is a man who thinks he will keep getting away with it. He thinks he is invincible… Why did nobody do anything? He's suspected of murder, yet he is allowed to remain free," Camber said.
The case, Camber argued, makes a mockery of the promises made to tackle violence against women and girls following high-profile cases like that of Sarah Everard.