Killer Simon Levy used bus driver's stolen travelcard to move around London after police repeatedly returned it

Killer Simon Levy used bus driver's stolen travelcard to move around London after police repeatedly returned it Simon Levy was convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey of murdering two women five months apart along with two counts of rape and other offences after jurors spent 13 hours deliberating Simon Levy used a bus driver's stolen travelcard to move around London murdering one woman and sexually assaulting nine more after police repeatedly returned it to him. Unemployed Levy was able to carry out his reign of terror because the Oyster card gave him unlimited free access to the capital's transport network under the cover of another man's name. He was in possession of it when he was arrested four times as his offending escalated between November 2024 and June last year but on each occasion it was not seized. A British Transport Police spokesman said officers repeatedly failed to notice it was a stolen card despite it being clearly marked: "Bus Operator issued subject to conditions". Former Met DCI David McKelvey said: "If the police had that card and released it to him then they effectively facilitated his offending." The disclosure can be made after partially blind Levy, 40, was today found guilty of murdering Sheryl Wilkins, 39, and Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53 in separate attacks last year. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting ten women aged between 18 and 32 on the Tube after a trial earlier this year at Inner London Crown Court. It can now be reported he was jailed for six years with a further three to serve on licence. Jurors heard how Levy was able to brazenly criss-cross London lunging at women on packed carriages while covering his hands with a poncho, trench coat or sweater tied around his waist. He attacked his first victim on the Jubilee Line in October 2023. But the rest of his offending happened after he obtained Phillip Clarke's staff travelcard which the bus driver lost at the Notting Hill carnival on August 26, 2024. Mr Clarke reported the loss to his manager and informed Transport for London but it was not deactivated. Two months later, on October 21 Levy attacked a woman after she got on a Central Line train at Stratford, East London. Prosecutor Will Martin told the court the killer squeezed her bottom. He said: "She moved away from Mr Levy. She felt disgusted, she was scared. He moved back towards her and pushed his body into her." Seven days later Levy groped a woman on the Central Line who then filmed him as he backed into her and forcefully grabbed her crotch before running off the train at Liverpool Street. The "prolific predatory monster" was first arrested by British Transport Police officers on November 4, 2024. He was bailed over the two attacks the month before but was allowed to keep the Oyster card. Levy was in possession of the pass when he was arrested on April 1 last year on suspicion of Carmenza's murder 16 days earlier. If checked at the time it would have shown that Levy had used it to travel to Elephant and Castle tube station, close to where Carmenza was murdered, on the afternoon she was killed. But he was released and was again allowed to retain the pass which he continued to use to target five more women on crowded carriages. Six days later the predator attacked a woman on the Victoria Line at 8.30am. She shouted, "what are you doing?" and, "don't touch me," after he groped her between the legs. The shocked commuter got off the train at the next stop and burst into tears. She said: "I felt violated, like I wasn't in control of what was happening. I felt disgusted. I got off the train and thought, 'Did that actually just happen?'" Levy groped his next victim, a photographer travelling with her equipment, two days later and she took a picture of him. Levy brazenly targeted his seventh victim in front of her mum on a packed overland train taking boxing fans to the Chris Eubank Jr fight with Conor Benn at the Tottenham Hotspur ground. Levy violently groped his next victim's buttock hard as the student stood on a Tube on May 1 last year. She said: "It was literally a grab and a pull. I moved back and shouted: 'Oh my God.' It felt very quick but it hurt a lot." She said: "I got off the train and I was talking to my mum about what happened. I was very hysterical." Levy was arrested for a third time later that day. He was finally charged with five Tube attacks and remanded into custody. He told police in a prepared statement on 2 May: "It must be noted that I am partially blind and as such it is possible for me to make contact with someone unintentionally if trying to find my way around." Levy was released on conditional bail the next day by JPs at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court. They gave him bail after it was not opposed by the prosecutor. Remarkably, police had still failed to seize the Oyster card and he used it in one final attack on the transport network. A woman was on the Jubilee Line heading to Bond Street to meet a friend at an art gallery when Levy shoved his hand into her crotch. She was standing next to a family with small children and first thought he was trying to pickpocket her. The woman said: "He was looking at me in the eyes. He was acting very excitable, very agitated, he was just jittery and acting a bit odd. I was waiting to see if he did it again and he did. "He grabbed me again and I grabbed what was underneath his robe, which was his hand. I went into fight mode. I shouted 'pervert' at him. I had a coke can and I threw the contents over his head and back while he was running away from me." Levy was arrested for a fourth time on June 20 but again the card was not seized. He was charged with eight Tube sex attacks and one count of breaking his bail conditions by travelling on the network. But he was released yet again by Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court this time after the prosecutor asked for him to be remanded. And despite having already broken bail conditions he was still allowed to travel on the London Underground with only a ban at rush hour. The transport sex offences stopped after the card was last used on June 16. It was finally seized by homicide detectives when Levy was arrested for Sheryl's muder in September last year. Levy was convicted of groping ten women on the Tube and sexually assaulting a prison officer in 2021 when he was serving a three year sentence for two more sex attacks. BTP Det Supt Peter Fulton apologised for the delay in bringing Levy to justice, saying: "It should have been done much quicker and much more efficiently." Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Kevin Southworth apologised to the victims and admitted there had been a "collective system failure". He said: "There's absolutely significant learning for all parties in this case.