A cannabis user launched a samurai sword rampage hacking a 14-year-old boy to death after hallucinating that his cat was causing ‘Armageddon’, a court heard yesterday.
Marcus Monzo, 37, admitted that he had been using cannabis ‘extensively’ which had changed his personality and caused a mental health decline.
In the grip of a cannabis-induced ‘psychotic disorder’, the Brazilian is said to have strangled, skinned and deboned his cat, Wizard, before attempting to eat it.
Minutes later, Monzo is alleged to have set off with the animal’s remains on a baking tray, a number of swords and a ball-bearing gun on a mission to kill, shouting ‘does anyone believe in God’.
Yesterday Monzo claimed he could not remember killing Daniel Anjorin, 14, as he was walking to school.
Nor could he remember ramming a pedestrian with his van or charging into a nearby house and attacking a terrified couple in their bedroom in front of their four-year-old child during the 20-minute rampage in Hainault, east London, on April 30 last year.
Yesterday Monzo told the Old Bailey that he had been consumed by ‘paranoia and anxiety’.
Monzo claimed he stopped smoking cannabis in 2015 because it changed his personality, but he started using cannabis daily again in 2023. But he denied smoking cannabis on the day.
Marcus Monzo, 37,(pictured) admitted that he had been using cannabis ‘extensively’ which had changed his personality and caused a mental health decline
Daniel Anjorin (pictured) the 14-year-old schoolboy was killed by a swordsman
Monzo, 37, at Westminster Magistrates Court last year flanked by custody officers
In the days before the attack, Monzo said: ‘I believed the cat was being used against me and I started receiving guidance, communication… telling me to kill the cat.’
He tried to cook Wizard, but he became ‘panicked and rushed’, believing an event ‘like an Armageddon’ was occurring.
Monzo wept while giving evidence saying he did not intend to harm anybody, adding: ‘My memory after I left my home… gradually it becomes very vague and abstract… not very clear.’
Monzo denies murder, attempted murder, aggravated burglary by entering a property with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, wounding with intent and having an article with a blade or point, namely a kitchen knife. The trial continues.
