A serial rapist who targeted teenagers and women has been jailed for life. In September 2018, a then 16-year-old Levi Bancroft took a 15-year-old girl into the stairwell of a block of Westminster flats during the late evening.
He then stopped her from leaving and forced her down into the stairwell where he raped her. In January 2020 when Bancroft was 17-years-old he followed a 15-year-old girl off of a Tube at Royal Oak Underground station late at night.
He then forced her into the stairwell of a nearby block of flats and raped her. In November 2023, Bancroft followed a transgender female into a cul-de-sac and raped her behind a parked car.
As she ran away from him he hurled transphobic and threatening comments, before violently assaulting her. The first allegation against Bancroft, made in 2018, was closed as the victim felt unable to proceed.
A second report was made in 2020 and the case went to trial. A third report from Thames Valley Police came to light and the trial was adjourned as the CPS worked to join the three cases together, after the first victim was willing to come forward again.
Detectives were able to identify Bancroft as the suspect in the first and second case through DNA samples collected during medical examinations of the victims. CCTV also placed him at the scene of the second and third case, as well as data from his electronic tag from a previous knife possession offence.
Bancroft, of Hanson Close, West Drayton, was sentenced on Friday, May 30 at Southwark Crown Court for four counts of rape involving three victims. The now 22-year-old raped three women women over a period of five years, targeting them as they were alone and vulnerable. He was also convicted of actual bodily harm, after he physically assaulted one of the women.
Detective Constable Lloyd Leech, who led the Met’s investigation, said: “A serial sexual offender has been taken off the streets, protecting women across the country.
“Bancroft repeatedly targeted vulnerable women and followed a sinister pattern of behaviour. His abhorrent offending would have very likely continued if it wasn’t for this arrest and conviction.
“I commend the bravery of the three victims to come forward and report what had happened to them. Justice has now been served.”
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