A man carried out a “brutal string of attacks with murderous intent” which left a 14-year-old schoolboy dead and five others injured during a series of unprovoked attacks, a court has heard.
Marcus Arduini Monzo embarked on a 20-minute rampage with a 60cm Japanese sword in Hainault, northeast London, on 30 April last year, while under the influence of drugs, a jury at the Old Bailey was told.
The bearded defendant, 37, is accused of ambushing teenager Daniel Anjorin as he walked to school and slashing him repeatedly in the chest and neck.
Mr Monzo has denied the teen’s murder, as well as four counts of attempted murder and one count of wounding with intent, which left injuries of “various degrees of severity”.
Opening the case on Wednesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “There was a clear intention to kill a number of people that morning on the defendant’s part. It did not matter who they were, or indeed how old they were.
“Daniel Anjorin is the boy that was murdered. He did not know the defendant. He was just 14 years of age at the time. He had left home and was simply walking to school, minding his own business, looking forward to the day ahead when he was killed by the defendant.
“His life was snuffed out in an instant. In fact, most accurately, he was slain by the defendant with the use of this sword.”
The court heard that the force used was “extreme”, and that Daniel sustained a “devastating and unsurvivable chopping injury”.
Mr Little KC recounted that the incident began shortly before 7am, when Mr Monzo is accused of deliberately driving his van into Donato Iwule on Laing Close, who narrowly escaped death after being “catapulted” into a nearby garden and attacked with the same sword.
“Donato Iwule also did not know the defendant. If he had not managed to escape, it seems inevitable that he too would have been killed,” the prosecutor said.
In dramatic footage shown to jurors, Mr Iwule can be heard shouting, “I don’t know you” before managing to run across the street while screaming.
Mr Monzo is then accused of approaching a female witness and attempting to trap her by standing on her foot. She managed to escape and was able to call the police.
Shortly afterwards, Daniel was making his way to school when Monzo is accused of “moving quickly like a predator” towards him and fatally striking him with the sword.
In mobile phone footage from one witness, Mr Little KC says one onlooker can be heard saying “He just killed that boy, he just killed him right outside my house”.
Emergency services were swiftly called, with police officers and paramedics arriving just moments after Daniel had been killed. As they approached his body, the court heard that Mr Monzo approached the ambulance with his sword, forcing them to retreat and preventing them from treating Daniel.
The third person to be attacked was a female police officer, Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield, who is said to have been injured after she “bravely” chased Mr Monzo through a series of alleyways while he was still armed with the sword.
The defendant is then accused of entering a nearby house and attacking Sindy Arias and Henry De Los Rios Polania in their bedroom, before “sparing their lives” after their four-year-old child started crying.
During the course of the attack, he allegedly shouted “do you believe in God?” and “because if you don’t believe in God…” before fleeing the property.
The final attack is said to have occurred after Mr Monzo was surrounded in a garage area, with police inspector Moloy Campbell injured before he was disarmed and arrested.
A search of his property found cannabis and a skinned cat, while a Katana sword was found inside his van.
During his police interview, jurors heard that Mr Monzo told police officers that “something happened, like a game happening” and compared it to the movie Hunger Games. He also claimed that one of his personalities was that of a professional assassin.
Jurors heard that there was “no issue” that Mr Monzo carried out the string of attacks, but it was his state of mind that was in dispute.
“The prosecution case is that this is a clear case of murder and that it is also a clear case of four attempted murders. We say that the defendant’s conduct was brought about by a self-induced intoxication in the form of drugs,” Mr Little KC said.
“This, we say, led to a psychotic disorder but not one meeting the requirements to make out the partial defence to murder of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.”
The court heard that the defence case will say that Mr Monzo was most likely suffering from a pre-existing condition, which created a “vulnerability to experiencing psychotic episodes with schizophrenia-like symptoms, prompted by his use of cannabis”.
In a court appearance last month, Mr Monzo denied Daniel’s murder, and pleaded not guilty to the attempted murders of Donato Iwule, Sindy Arias, Henry De Los Rios Polania and Pc Yasmin Margaret Mechem-Whitfield as well as wounding Inspector Moloy Campbell with intent.
He also denied aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article relating to a kitchen knife.
