A person carried out a “brutal string of attacks with murderous intent” which left a 14-year-old schoolboy lifeless and 5 others injured throughout a collection of unprovoked assaults, a courtroom has heard.
Marcus Arduini Monzo launched into a 20-minute rampage with a big 60cm Japanese sword in Hainault, north-east London, on 30 April final yr, whereas below the affect of medication, a jury on the Old Bailey was instructed.
The bearded defendant, 37, is accused of ambushing teenager Daniel Anjorin as he walked to high school and slashing him repeatedly within the chest and neck.
He has denied his homicide, in addition to 4 counts of tried homicide and one rely of wounding with intent, which left accidents of “various degrees of severity”.
Opening the case on Wednesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC mentioned: “The prosecution say 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 courtroom heard that the pressure used was “extreme”, and that Daniel sustained a “devastating and unsurvivable chopping injury”.
Mr Little KC recounted that the incident started shortly earlier than 7am, when Monzo is accused of intentionally driving his van into Donato Iwule on Laing Close, who narrowly escaped loss of life after being “catapulted” into a close-by backyard and attacked with the identical 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 mentioned.
In dramatic footage proven to jurors, Mr Iwule will be heard shouting, “I don’t know you” earlier than managing to run throughout the road whereas screaming.
Monzo is then accused of approaching a feminine witness and trying to entice her by standing on her foot. She managed to flee and was in a position to name the police.
Shortly afterwards, Daniel was making his solution to college when Monzo is accused of “moving quickly like a predator” in the direction of him and fatally putting him with the sword.
In cell phone footage from one witness, Mr Little KC says one onlooker will be heard saying “He just killed that boy, he just killed him right outside my house”.
Emergency companies had been swiftly referred to as, with law enforcement officials and paramedics arriving simply moments after Daniel had been killed. As they approached his physique, the courtroom heard that Monzo approached the ambulance together with his sword, forcing them to retreat and stopping them from treating Daniel.
The third particular person to be attacked was a feminine police officer, Yasin Mechem-Whitfield, who is claimed to have been injured after she “bravely” chased Monzo by means of a collection of alleyways whereas he was nonetheless armed with the sword.
The defendant is then accused of coming into a close-by home and attacking Sindy Arias and Henry De Los Rios Polania of their bed room, earlier than “sparing their lives” after their four-year-old youngster began crying.
The ultimate assault is claimed to have occurred after Monzo was surrounded in a storage space, with police inspector Moloy Campbell injured earlier than he was disarmed and arrested.
Jurors heard that there was “no issue” that Monzo carried out the string of assaults, but it surely was his way of thinking 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 mentioned.
“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 courtroom heard that the defence case will say that Monzo was almost certainly affected by a pre-existing situation, which created a “vulnerability to experiencing psychotic episodes with schizophrenia-like symptoms, prompted by his use of cannabis”.
In a courtroom look final month, Monzo denied Daniel’s homicide, and pleaded not responsible to the tried murders of Donato Iwule, Sindy Arias, Henry De Los Rios Polania and Pc Yasmin Margaret Mechem-Whitfield in addition to wounding Inspector Moloy Campbell with intent.
He additionally denied aggravated housebreaking and possession of a bladed article referring to a kitchen knife.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/hainault-sword-attack-daniel-anjorin-b2762901.html