VIOLENCE against women and girls is not being taken seriously enough, the Women and Equalities Minister said today, branding the case of a man left free to kill “shocking and appalling.”

Bridget Phillipson said the government “have to do more and have to do better” on women’s safety, following the case of Simon Levy, a serial sex attacker whose crimes escalated from sexual assaults on the Tube to double murder despite repeated justice system failures.

Mr Levy, 40, was jailed for life on Wednesday for killing grandmother Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, in March 2025 and mother-of-four Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in August that year.

He was a registered sex offender who had already committed offences between February 2023 and August 2025.

Ms Phillipson told the BBC’s Today programme: “It’s almost hard to put into words just the sheer scale of failure that left a very violent and dangerous man, who clearly posed a significant risk to women, free to roam the streets, to do harm, and to murder women when he should have been locked up.”

The Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have all faced questions over the case.

Ms Phillipson said the case raised a question on “how we respond to violence against women and girls,” adding: “The misogyny that women face, the level of violence and abuse that women face — this is something I’ve committed many, many years to working on.

“There have been some improvements and there have been some changes, but in terms of the fundamentals, do we take this seriously enough? No, we do not, and that has to change.”

Centre for Women’s Justice CEO Harriet Wistrich said the Levy case was “terrifying evidence” that “our criminal justice system is in a state of collapse.”

“Given the history of past inquiries, the many recommendations for change made and statements of ‘lessons learned,’ it is time to disband the Met Police and restructure and repurpose policing so that it can effectively tackle male violence and some semblance of trust and confidence can be restored.

“We owe it to those women and all women and girls who are subject to the pandemic of male violence against women to take radical action.”

The Met and CPS have apologised for failings in the case.