Murder accused ‘remembers killing cat but not attacking people’

The man accused of killing a 14-year-old boy in a series of sword attacks in east London has told a jury he tried to cook and eat his cat but cannot remember attacking anybody.

Marcus Monzo, 37, who denies the murder of Daniel Anjorin and the attempted murder of four others in Hainault on 30 April last year, said on the morning of the attacks he felt the onset of “something like Armageddon”.

He told the Old Bailey he packed two swords and some clothes and then set out to help his parents, as he believed “the world was collapsing”.

When he was asked whether he could remember attacking five people, including Daniel, he said he could not.

Mr Monzo said he had strangled his cat and tried to cook and eat it because he was “receiving messages” telling him to “get rid of the cat”.

He said he then began to believe the world was about to end and that his parents were in danger.

“It was extremely confusing,” he said.

“The idea I was receiving was that there was something happening… I didn’t know exactly what.

“Something like an Armageddon.”

Mr Monzo said he packed items he would need for survival including clothes and two swords.

“I had this idea the world was collapsing …I had an idea that I was not going to come back.”

But, he said he “definitely never intended to harm anybody” with the swords and that he took them with him to “empower” him.

Mr Monzo wept while giving evidence and told jurors he “received guidance and communication” in his head that the cat “was being used against me by negative forces” and he took it to a park to get rid of it.

He said the cat returned to his Newham flat on the morning of the attacks, and that he strangled it despite claiming he did not want to.

Asked why it was skinned, he told jurors he was receiving communication “telling me that the cat had taken energy from me and to replenish and get the energy back I had to eat the cat.”

Mr Monzo said he tried to cook it, but became “panicked and rushed” and “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.

Giving evidence on his background on Friday, Mr Monzo told the court he experienced “bullying and violence” while growing up in Brazil.

He moved to London in 2013, where he began smoking cannabis and took magic mushrooms a few times, jurors heard.

The defendant said he stopped in 2015 because cannabis made him feel “unproductive” and “lazy” but resumed using it years later.

He said he later developed an interest in spirituality and “alternative medicines” after becoming injured in 2016.

Following a visit to India in 2018, he began to engage in some “very extreme” practices, he said, including drinking and washing himself with his own urine.

He said that during and following trips to India and Brazil he drank ayahuasca – a type of brew made from ingredients with hallucinogenic properties, and also drank it twice in the UK after he returned.

After a second trip to India, Mr Monzo said he became distant from his family and followed various practices including sleeping as little as possible, eating as little as possible and enduring discomfort and pain.

The prosecution alleged that after Mr Monzo attacked Mr Iwule and killed Daniel, he was chased by PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield through alleyways before he hit her three times with the sword that had a 60cm blade.

Mr Monzo is then said to have entered a property and attacked a couple who were sleeping with their young daughter nearby.

He is also accused of hitting Insp Moloy Campbell with a sword before he was arrested.

Afterwards, he likened events to the Hollywood film The Hunger Games and claimed to have an alternative personality of a “professional assassin”.

Mr Monzo denies Daniel’s murder, four attempted murders and wounding with intent.

He also denies aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article relating to a kitchen knife.

He has admitted having two swords.

The trial continues.