Daniel Anjorin, 14, died after being stabbed outside his home in Hainault, northeast London, on April 30. Marcus Monzo, 37, has been jailed for life for his murder. Four other people were injured in the attack. Photo / Getty Images
Daniel Anjorin, 14, died after being stabbed outside his home in Hainault, northeast London, on April 30. Marcus Monzo, 37, has been jailed for life for his murder. Four other people were injured in the attack. Photo / Getty Images
A Spanish-Brazilian man who killed and nearly decapitated a London schoolboy with a Samurai-type sword in a 20-minute orgy of violence was on Friday jailed for life.
Marcus Monzo, 37, who had become psychotic from taking cannabis, was found guilty by a jury earlier this week of murdering 14-year-old DanielAnjorin as he walked to school.
“Members of the public were attacked, police officers were gravely injured, a couple were terrified in their own home and a clever, talented young boy was killed,” Judge Joel Bennathan told Monzo as he handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years.
No jail term “can even begin to temper Daniel’s family’s grief”, the judge told Monzo.
“Daniel was a clever boy. He was gifted musically and played a variety of sports well. He was a happy child and his loss is obviously devastating,” he added.
Bennathan also praised police who tackled and disarmed Monzo following the rampage in Hainault, northeast London, in April last year.
The parents of 14 year-old Daniel Anjorin, Dr Ebenezer Anjorin (centre), and his mother Grace (left), speaking outside the Old Bailey in London. Photo / Getty Images
They showed “exemplary courage and put their lives on the line to try to protect the public they serve”, he said.
“They are a credit to the uniform they wear and both the Metropolitan Police and London can be proud of them.”
Monzo was sentenced for the murder of Daniel, attacking three other members of the public and two police officers.
The court heard earlier that he began his murderous rampage by driving his van into a pedestrian, hurling him into a nearby garden, and then jumping out of the vehicle to hit him in the neck with the sword.
He got back in the van and drove down the road, where he attacked Daniel, who was wearing headphones and sports gear.
Daniel suffered a “devastating and unsurvivable chopping injury to the left-hand-side of his face and neck” from the sword, prosecutor Tom Little said, describing the wound as “essentially a near-decapitation”.
Monzo then attacked a policewoman who chased him through the alleyways, hitting her three times with the sword.
He ran into a house, and upstairs into the bedroom of a couple, attacking them while they slept. He fled outside again when the couple’s young daughter woke up and began to cry, and allegedly struck another police officer with the sword, before then being disarmed.
Questioned by police, Monzo claimed he had had a personality switch and compared the events to the film The Hunger Games.
He told police that he had “many personalities spread out” and that one of them was a “professional assassin”.
Police also discovered he had skinned and deboned his cat, just prior to launching his violent attacks.
Taking into account the time Monzo has already spent in custody, he will serve 38 years and 309 days in jail before he is eligible to apply for parole.
