For Daniel Anjorin, 30 April last year started as any normal day would do. The 14-year-old woke up, packed his schoolbag and waved goodbye to his family. He then picked his favourite music to listen to on the way to school.
As he stepped out of his front door, the devoted Arsenal fan – described as a “true scholar” by his school, Bancroft’s in Woodford Green, east London – had no idea of the horror that was about to unfold.
Moments later, Marcus Arduini Monzo unleashed a violent 20-minute rampage that left Daniel dead and five others injured.
Believing that an event “like an Armageddon” was happening, the attacker – who had spent the early hours of his morning consuming drugs and, disturbingly, attempting to eat his cat – ambushed Daniel from behind with a samurai sword. When the ambulance arrived, he swung his sword towards the vehicle, delaying paramedics from reaching the boy’s lifeless body.
Minutes before the attack, Monzo, 37, had used his Ford transit van to mow down pedestrian Donato Iwule before slashing him in the neck.
During his police interviews, Monzo likened the events to the Hollywood film The Hunger Games, and claimed to have “many personalities spread out”, including one of a professional assassin.
Despite his claiming that he had been suffering from a psychotic disorder, the jury has now found him guilty of murder and three counts of attempted murder, wounding with intent, aggravated burglary, and possessing a bladed article. He was cleared of one count of attempted murder but found guilty of the lesser offence of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
While growing up in Brazil, Monzo claimed to have experienced bullying and violence. When he moved to London in 2013, he started smoking cannabis and taking magic mushrooms. Despite quitting in 2015 as it made him feel “unproductive”, he started the habit again a few years later.
Following a mixed martial arts (MMA) injury in 2016, Monzo turned to yoga. He told the court he developed an increased interest in spirituality and began following the YouTube guru Sadhguru.
Over the following years, he would attend a year-long retreat to India to detach from family and friends, and also began to take ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew traditionally from South America.
During subsequent trips to remote parts of Brazil and India, as well as attending breatharian festivals – where individuals claim to live without food or water, sustaining themselves solely on “life force” – in Italy and Denmark, he was seen “looking skinnier” and said that he had begun taking ayahuasca in “ceremonies”.
It was following these experiences that he began drinking his urine for “cleaning” purposes, also using it to wash his hair and clean his face.
He and his family fell out over his hygiene and lifestyle, and he ended up living in Newham, where he continued to smoke cannabis regularly.
The court heard how, in the days before the attacks, he “received guidance and communication” in his head that his pet cat Wizard “was being used against me by negative forces”. He took it to a park to get rid of it.
But the cat returned to his flat on the morning of the attack. He told the court he strangled the animal, despite claiming he did not want to.
Asked why it was skinned, he told jurors: “After I strangled him, he (the communication) was telling me that the cat had taken energy from me and to replenish and get the energy back, I had to eat the cat.”
Monzo said he tried to cook it, but became “panicked and rushed”, believing an event “like an Armageddon” was happening.
The defendant told jurors that he “didn’t have time to eat the cat”, so he put it in the back of his Ford Transit and picked up swords, a ball-bearing gun and a backpack containing clothes.
He said: “I had this idea that the world was collapsing… something big was happening, I didn’t know exactly what, I had the idea that I wasn’t coming back.”
After setting off towards his parents’ house, Monzo used his van to knock Mr Iwuale into a garden and attack him while shouting, “I’m going to kill you.” CCTV captured his victim’s terrified screams.
After Mr Iwuale escaped, Monzo attempted to stop a woman and talk to her. But then he caught sight of Daniel and launched his fatal attack.
When the police arrived, PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield chased the defendant through alleyways. Monzo then struck her three times with the sword, which prosecutors said had a 60cm blade.
Monzo then entered a property and attacked a couple who were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, near to their young daughter, while shouting “Do you believe in God?”
He also struck Inspector Moloy Campbell once with the sword before he was arrested.
The defendant, who claimed he had no memory of what happened until he was tasered, admitted possessing two swords but denied the other charges.
He has now been found guilty of murder, attempted murder, wounding with intent, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.
For Daniel’s family, however, no prison sentence can bring back their “beloved son”.
In a tribute last year, they said: “It is difficult for us at this time to process what has happened to him and that he will never come home.
“Daniel had left the house for school, and then he was gone. Our children have lost their loving and precious brother, and we have lost the most loved and amazing son.”
