How Hainault swordsman Marcus Monzo slipped into drugs and delusion

Times

5 hours ago

Three friends at a martial arts gym in east London watched grainy video of a bearded man roaming a residential street armed with a samurai sword, late on April 30 last year.
Screams of 'he's got a massive knife' could be heard as residents in Laing Close, Hainault, cowered at the horrific 20-minute rampage that unfolded on their doorstep at 7am.
The knifeman had driven his van into Donato Iwule, a security guard, and stabbed him, before he ambushed Daniel Anjorin, 14, whose life was 'snuffed out in an instant'. The schoolboy, described as a 'beloved son and a precious brother', died in hospital from his wounds.
Dressed in a yellow Quiksilver hoodie, the attacker broke into a house and slashed a father in front of his estranged wife and their daughter. Later he seriously injured two Metropolitan Police officers when they tried to apprehend him.
Emma* said: 'I saw the video on social media and said, 'Oh my God, this is horrible.' Then we heard who it was when he was charged. We looked at the video again. We realised we knew this person but hadn't recognised him — he was skinny and gaunt. He didn't look like that when he trained here.'
Marcus Arduini Monzo faces a life sentence after being convicted of the cannabis-induced psychotic rampage following a trial at the Old Bailey in London.
On Wednesday Monzo, 37, of West Beckton in east London, was found guilty of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and two charges of wounding with intent, aggravated burglary and having an article with a blade or point, namely a kitchen knife.
Before his trial he admitted two counts of having an offensive weapon, namely a katana and a tanto, both types of Japanese sword.
Those who knew Monzo, who was born in Brazil, had not seen the 'easygoing boy' since he left for the UK more than a decade ago. They were unable to comprehend Monzo's appalling crimes carried out at daybreak 6,000 miles away.
Leandro Leite, a baker in Astorga, a rural town of 26,000 people in southern Brazil, said: 'We never thought that people would come to know us like this.'
Monzo spent his early years with his parents and older brother in the countryside outside Astorga, in a small community known as Paranaguá. Monzo's parents worked as farmers until the late 1990s when large agricultural corporations moved into the area and took over their business.
Two of his school friends recalled their close bond with Monzo during their teenage years. The three saw each other almost every day after school and played video games at an internet café that had recently opened in the town. Later they trained together at a local gym. Both men said they never saw Monzo behave violently.
In Paranaguá, The Times spoke to Marisa de Oliveira, who said she went to primary school with the killer. They also attended a Catholic catechism course at a small church that still stands in the community.
She said: 'I have had a hard time believing that it was the Marcus we knew. He was always an easygoing boy, he wasn't quarrelsome. I feel sorry for the boy's mother. As a mother too, I can only imagine the pain of losing a child.'
Monzo experienced 'bullying and violence' during his teenage years and an 'obsession' with his ears led to surgery. He spoke of having issues with alcohol too.
Monzo studied for a degree in business administration and ran an online clothing business with his brother for six years.
His father had left for the US to find work and the family later joined him but Monzo struggled to gain a green card and was unable to work. He applied for a Spanish passport through his mother's heritage and moved to London in 2013, aged 25.
Monzo worked in pubs and began smoking cannabis as well as taking an LSD-like hallucinogenic and magic mushrooms with friends. 'The first time I took it I had a very special experience,' he said.
The Spanish-Brazilian citizen claimed to have irregularly smoked the class B drug with friends for two years until he realised 'it was not serving me well', when he consumed it alone.
'I became lazy and unproductive. I wasn't the hardworking person I was before,' he added.
He took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and joined a martial arts gym in east London where patrons described Monzo as a polite, sociable, 'happy-go-lucky guy' who was 'shredded' and took care of himself.
Danny* said: 'We met him when he joined in around 2013. He took part in competitions and he was very competitive. The gym is like a big community and people who train as friends will often socialise. There was never any heat, he never lost his temper.'
Steven* added: 'He was very calm and a good athlete — very capable, very strong.'
After a competition injury in 2016, Monzo turned to yoga and alternative medicine to avoid surgery. He developed an intense interest in spirituality. He characterised this as 'exploring the subtle aspects of life — the magical, miraculous and supernatural'. Drugs undoubtedly played a role.
He started following Sadhguru, the spiritual guru who is popular on YouTube, in 2017 and spent a year at an ashram retreat in India. Monzo said he was taught at a retreat to detach from family and friends.
During a weekend trip, he took ayahuasca — a hallucinogenic brew traditionally used in South America. He returned to the UK 'looking skinnier', before travelling to a remote part of Brazil to consume more ayahuasca, he said.
Monzo took ayahuasca twice in the UK, describing it as having stronger effects during 'ceremonies'. He later travelled back to Brazil and India, and attended 'breatharian' festivals in Italy and Denmark, which promote living without food, the jury was told.
On his return to the UK in 2021, Monzo argued with family members over his personal hygiene, later admitting that his behaviour at this time was 'a little extreme'.
'Something I greatly regret is that I threw away the medals I won in competitions,' he added.
He shared TikTok videos which claimed DNA was 'altered' by the Covid-19 vaccine and supported David Icke, who promoted fringe conspiracy theories in the 1990s and gained further prominence in 2020 during the pandemic.
In 2022, Danny claimed that Monzo sent him 'enigmatic' text messages, sometimes involving conspiracy theories suggesting he should be aware that someone could be reading his mind.
Witnesses at Monzo's trial shared similar experiences. One female witness, who enlisted Monzo to help move goods for an awards ceremony in central London, said he described a 'spiritual experience that opened his eyes and he wanted to teach people the truth'.
'I mentioned the pandemic and he said 'plandemic' [sic] in a way to correct me.'
Monzo claimed Covid-19 was created to 'shut us down', the court was told. He told the woman to find him on X but when she cited her dislike of Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform, Monzo said: 'That's the great thing about Elon Musk, he has allowed the truth to come out.'
Monzo claimed the 'world was flat' and that people were being controlled by 'evil wizard-type aliens'. He claimed the Pope was 'the most evil person on the planet' and that 9/11 was a 'conspiracy'.
The woman added: 'It was frightening that he believed all this. He was very passionate in his views and believed what he was saying.'
Rafael Ericson, one of the few neighbours who knew Monzo in West Beckton, said he never saw Monzo with 'friends or a girlfriend'. 'I think he used to be quite lonely. We can see the whole movement around the neighbourhood, people have parties or friends, but I never saw that with him.'
Monzo's gym friends said they noticed he was socially withdrawn when he resumed training in the summer of 2023.
Emma said: 'When he came back around he was a bit weird, he was not the same person.
They noticed he didn't have a smartphone and instead used a 'brick' phone.
Monzo trained as a boxer for a few months before he stopped attending the gym in November 2023, five months before he carried out his crimes.
By last year, Monzo's mental health was declining and he began smoking more cannabis, an act of self-medication to treat his anxiety, while dealing with paranoia and intrusive thoughts.
When news of Monzo's arrest reached his home town, one school friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said he last saw Monzo in 2016 and they travelled to the coast of southern Brazil.
'He told me he missed his friends but his life was settled in the UK,' the man said. 'After that, I had three or four conversations with him and our lives took different paths.
'We knew that he started travelling and perhaps that was a problem … He didn't find himself.'
*Names have been changed