Marcus Monzo, 37, took to the streets of Hainault, east London brandishing a samurai sword and virtually decapitated 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin in a drug-fuelled rampage
The samurai sword killer who murdered a 14-year-old during a 20-minute drug-induced rampage had displayed signs of crazed thinking for years before the bloodshed.
Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, took to the streets of Hainault, north east London in April last year carrying a baking tray with the skinned and deboned remains of his pet cat Wizard before virtually decapitating schoolboy Daniel Anjorin. He also attacked a pedestrian, two police officers and a couple in their own home.
At the Old Bailey yesterday, Monzo, originally from Brazil, showed no emotion as the jury found him guilty of the youngster’s murder, three charges of attempted murder, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article.
Jurors heard from family and friends of the life that lead to his cruel crimes, with relatives painting a picture of an idyllic boyhood and a popular young man who spent his early years worshipping in church, riding horses and playing with animals. It wasn’t until he moved to London that the cracks started to show.
Drug use
On the day of the rampage, Monzo is said to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis after smoking cannabis – in keeping with his £100-a-day habit – and ingesting the hallucinogenic substance, ayahuasca. While he was known to regularly ingest a cocktail of powerful psychedelic drugs, including LSD, magic mushrooms and salvia, they didn’t become part of his life until he moved from his native Brazil to London. In the capital, he started working at a pub and experimenting with the mind-altering substances, his brother Eduardo told the Old Bailey.
Ayahuasca, which contains the drug DMT, is a sacred vine found in the Amazonian rainforest that is traditionally taken under the supervision of a Shaman due to the power of its effects. One of its proponents is Prince Harry, who said it helped him get over the death of his mother, Princess Diana. The drug comes in the form of a tea, which often makes the user vomit violently before they’re overcome with a sense of powerful euphoria and vivid hallucinations. Many who have taken it claim the experience has changed them forever.
However, like all psychedelics, and particularly those who are vulnerable to mental illness, it can cause extreme feelings of paranoia and disconnection from reality.
It’s thought that he used the substance daily as he believed it would help him reach spiritual enlightenment, but instead he was turned into a bloodthirsty killer and child murderer who couldn’t discern reality from fiction.
‘God complex’
Much of Monzo’s drug-ingestion was supposedly fuelled by the desire to reach spiritual enlightenment. Though he was raised a Catholic and spent a long time in church as a youngster, there was no indication that early of just how obsessed he would become about the other side.
In 2017, Monzo started to attend yoga sessions, which was when he found an Indian guru online named Sadhguru, the founder of the Isha Foundation.
Enraptured by his teachings, he travelled to India to go on an ashram retreat. On his return, he was a “completely different person”, his brother said.
“Marcus’s behaviour started to change,” he said. “He didn’t want to be contacted by me any more and when we did speak he would only talk about Sadhguru. He had grown a full beard and was wearing traditional white Indian clothing and had lost lots of weight.”
On his return, he became a feature at alternative festivals around the world. He even worked at an event dedicated to breathanarianism – which teaches people can live without food and live on their “life force” alone. The movement has lead to several people dying as a result of starvation.
A former pal – who he met at one of these festivals – told the MailOnline that Monzo had started to develop a god complex and was often rambling on about being a “spiritual guide and a guru and even a god”
“He was using spirituality as a cover for his narcissism”, they said.
It was at this point that Monzo began losing his grip on reality, pushing family and friends away with his erratic behaviour.
Conspiracies and urine showers
With less and less contact with the outside world, Monzo was left to explore and obsess a number of bizarre practices. At home, he started “urine therapy” – a potentially dangerous alternative practice touted as a miracle cure online which involves drinking and showering in one’s own liquid waste.
His social media accounts from 2023 showed the internal struggles of a fractured mind as he would constantly spout conspiracy theories online, including claims of the Earth being flat, under the control of “Zionists”, and assert that the Pope was actually a reptilian lizard creature.
He told Andrew Tate that he resonated with his teachings and dubbed infamous conspiracy theorist David Icke “legendary”.
Pre-existing disorders
Despite his brother’s depiction of a pleasant childhood, Monzo told jurors that he would “switch between personalities” to process trauma from his early years. He said that one of these personalities is “like a professional assassin” when he was asked about the behaviour of that day.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Bernard Chin asserted that Monzo had been previously diagnosed with schizotypal disorder, but acknowledged that he could lessen the impact of the illness by not taking drugs.
On Wednesday, he was found criminally responsible for the heinous crimes, with jurors agreeing it was his drug habit alone that drove him to kill last year.