Samurai swordsman guilty of murdering schoolboy he nearly decapitated during rampage

A killer who virtually decapitated a 14-year-old boy during a samurai sword rampage is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of murder.

Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, wanted to kill as many people as he could in a spate of indiscriminate attacks lasting 20 minutes in Hainault, northeast London, on April 30 last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Schoolboy Daniel Anjorin’s life was ‘snuffed out in an instant’ when Monzo crept up behind him and delivered a ‘devastating and unsurvivable’ blow to the side of his face and neck.

Witnesses described Monzo dropping to his knees with both arms raised while screaming ‘in delight’ at the senseless slaughter.

A pedestrian, two police officers and a couple in their own home were lucky to survive after also being attacked during the spree.

Afterwards, Monzo likened events to Hollywood movie The Hunger Games and claimed to have an alternative personality of a ‘professional assassin’.

He was found guilty of Daniel’s murder as well as 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.

Monzo previously admitted two counts of having an offensive weapon, namely two swords.

Tom Little KC, prosecuting, told jurors Monzo had ‘a clear intention to kill a number of people… it did not matter who they were, or indeed how old they were’.

The first attack was when Monzo drove his grey Ford Transit van at speed into Donato Iwule.

The pedestrian was ‘catapulted some distance’ into a nearby garden on Laing Close and the vehicle smashed a concrete pillar and fence.

Monzo then leapt out of the vehicle and struck Mr Iwule in the neck with the sword.

Footage played to the court showed Mr Iwule wailing and later running away after the murder attempt that started at 6.51am.

Mr Little told jurors: ‘If he had not managed to escape it seems inevitable that he too would have been killed.’

Monzo then re-entered the badly damaged van and drove a short distance down Laing Close.

Daniel was wearing headphones and school sports clothes when he left home for school at 7am and was ‘slain’ by Monzo, Mr Little said.

The schoolboy sustained a ‘devastating and unsurvivable chopping injury to the left-hand side of his face and neck’ from the sword, the prosecutor added.

Mr Little described the wound as ‘essentially a near-decapitation’.

Emergency services were called, and police and paramedics arrived ‘at the point and just after’ the attack.

PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield chased Monzo through a series of alleyways through residential properties.

Monzo struck her three times with the sword that had a 60cm blade using ‘extreme force’, the prosecutor said.

She sustained ‘significant injuries’ that could have ‘easily’ killed her, he added.

Monzo then entered a nearby house through a backdoor and walking upstairs into a sleeping couple’s bedroom and attacking them.

Their daughter was sleeping in a bed next to theirs and Mr Little said: ‘They were spared only because in fact the four-year-old child woke up and started to cry.’

Monzo shouted to the couple on a number occasions, ‘do you believe in god?’ before leaving the property through the front door.

Police had been following him, and he was backed into a nearby garage area near to the other attacks.

He then lashed out at Inspector Moloy Campbell once with the sword before attempting to escape police.

Monzo then climbed on top a garage but he was eventually disarmed and arrested.

He wept while giving evidence as he claimed he did not intend to harm anybody when asked about why he bought the swords.

Monzo 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.’

He said he then set off towards his parents’ house.

The killer told jurors: ‘My memory after I left my home… gradually it becomes very vague and abstract… not very clear.’

Monzo said he was smoking cannabis ‘three or four times a week’ before the attack but denied doing so on the day.

Jurors heard that he told an expert that cannabis was a ‘major contributor’ to the rampage, but he played down its effects in the witness box, telling jurors he did not think it ‘guided’ the killing.

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