Earlier this month Simon Levy was jailed for life for the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins. The circumstances around these horrific killings by Levy, who was a serial murderer, rapist and sex offender, sadly echo what we have seen before in too many other cases, including that of Carl Cooper, who murdered Naomi Hunte and Fiona Holm. Too often, the police are failing to protect women from male violence.
Earlier this month Simon Levy was jailed for life for the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins. The circumstances around these horrific killings by Levy, who was a serial murderer, rapist and sex offender, sadly echo what we have seen before in too many other cases. The police response included missed warning signs and opportunities, downgrading of risk, untimely release of perpetrators from custody, botched investigations and the failure to join the dots.
Yet again, the Met Police and CPS alike have offered their apologies while seeking to deflect responsibility for a catastrophic litany of failures to protect women from and investigate gender-based violence.
The same pattern of failure and deflection was seen in the Met’s handling of the murders of two black women, Naomi Hunte and Fiona Holm, by the same abusive partner - Carl Cooper - within a period of sixteen months in 2022 and 2023.
Like the deaths of the women killed and harmed by Simon Levy, the murders of Naomi and Fiona were entirely preventable. As in the Simon Levy case, the ten officers who failed Naomi and Fiona are also under investigation by the IOPC for misconduct or gross misconduct.
And many of the Met police failings in Naomi and Fiona’s cases also happened after the Louise Casey review in 2023. Her report followed the brutal killing of Sarah Everard and was widely perceived to be a watershed moment, in its findings that the Met police was institutionally racist and misogynist.
These tragedies are also indicative of a broader culture of denial and defensiveness that serves to bolster the systemic and institutionalised nature of failings within the police service and the wider criminal justice system: a culture in which reputational management seems to be the first priority while violence against women is not seen as ‘real’ police work, ensuring that these tragedies will recur again and again.
The result is the deepening crisis of accountability and credibility of the very system that is entrusted with a duty to protect us as women. We reject the repeated promises of change and “learning lessons” by the police: they have long been hollowed out.
Change, hope and progress now lie in the hands of the families of Carmenza, Sheryl, Naomi, Fiona and countless others with whom we stand in solidarity as they courageously take on the police and the criminal justice system in their struggle for satisfactory answers and meaningful accountability.
by Pragna Patel