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BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Man who murdered Hainault schoolboy with sword to be sentenced
Update: Date: 10:14 BST Title: 'I'm no hero,' says officer slashed in Hainault sword attack Content: Lucy ManningSpecial correspondent This video can not be played 'He was slashing at me' - police officer who confronted Hainault sword attacker We have interviewed Inspector Moloy Campbell, who engaged in face-to-face fighting with Marco Monzo, receiving a slash wound to his hand as he tried to disarm him. He told us that he does not see himself as a hero, but he said his team of officers are "undoubtedly heroic" for their actions in stopping the attack. Recalling the confrontation in April 2024, Insp Campbell told the BBC: "It's a natural instinct: fight or flight, and in that moment it was fight. There was emotion after the event and after it all died down, but there was no fear." He added: "And I don't think there was much fear from anyone actually, because they're police officers and are expected to take action and that's hard drilled into them and they did it well." Update: Date: 10:11 BST Title: Reporters and camera crews set up outside Old Bailey Content: Cachella SmithReporting from the Old Bailey I'm here at the Old Bailey in central London where we are expecting the sentencing hearing of Marcus Monzo to begin within the next hour. The court will first hear submissions from the prosecution and defence teams before the judge actually passes down the sentence - which you'll be able to watch this afternoon from 14:00 BST. On Wednesday, Monzo was found guilty of a number of offences - including the murder of 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin and the attempted murder of three others - all of which took place in a series of attacks that lasted just over 20 minutes. Since the attacks last year, the case has attracted a large amount of media attention. I spotted two camera crews outside as I came in this morning, but there are already a number of journalists waiting outside the courtroom itself. Update: Date: 10:04 BST Title: How a deadly attack unfolded in just 20 minutes Content: Update: Date: 09:58 BST Title: From conspiracy theorist to violent assailant – who is Marcus Monzo? Content: After his arrest on 24 April 2024, Marcus Monzo sat for a series of police interviews. Throughout, police learned that the 37-year-old believed his personality had switched before the attack and he compared the events to the movie The Hunger Games. He also told police that he had "many personalities" and that one of them was a "professional assassin". Before coming to the UK in 2013, Monzo grew up in Brazil. While giving evidence in court, he admitted to being possession of two samurai swords, but insisted he could not remember attacking multiple people in a rampage across the streets of Hainault. The court heard that the former Amazon driver was a martial arts enthusiast who believed in conspiracy theories - including ones about the Earth being flat and that the 9/11 attacks were fake. His brother said he had changed after attending retreats in India and the Amazon where he drank ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea. Both the prosecution and defence agreed Monzo had a psychotic disorder. But prosecutors said his behaviour was triggered "by self-induced intoxication in the form of drugs" through his use of cannabis, which led to the psychosis. Monzo's defence claimed he was "most likely suffering from a pre-existing condition". On the day of the attack, he strangled his cat and tried to eat it. That morning, Monzo said he had felt the onset of "something like Armageddon" and he believed "the world was collapsing". Update: Date: 09:51 BST Title: 'We have lost the most loved and amazing son' Content: Daniel Anjorin's father, who sat in court throughout the trial, spent several days listening to disturbing evidence about how his son was killed and watching the police videos of Monzo with his sword attacking others that day. When Monzo received his guilty verdict this week, the father of Daniel Anjorin sat just feet away – occasionally wiping away tears. The family of the 14-year-old boy released a statement after his death, saying that it was hard for them to fathom that Daniel had left the house for school on that spring morning 'and then he was gone'. "Our children have lost their loving and precious brother and we have lost the most loved and amazing son," they said. Update: Date: 09:44 BST Title: 'He's just killed that boy': How the Hainault attack unfolded Content: Kirsty O'Connor, from CPS, said this week that their "hearts go out" to Daniel's family and friends who have suffered "his unimaginable loss in horrific circumstances" As we've been reporting, Marcus Monzo is set to be sentenced today over the deadly attack he carried out in Hainault last year, during which he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin and injured several others. The 37-year-old's rampage began on the morning of 30 April 2024 in the north-east London suburb. He first drove a van into a pedestrian and then slashed him in the neck, before turning his attention to Daniel, who he fatally wounded with a 60cm (24in) samurai sword. Monzo then entered a nearby home where a couple and their four-year-old daughter were asleep, slashing a man on the arm before leaving the property. He was cleared of one count of attempted murder in relation to this attack, but was found guilty of the lesser offence of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The court was told Monzo had gone into a cannabis-induced psychosis before the attack. Giving evidence at his trial, he said he had no memory of what happened and claimed his mental state had diminished his responsibility for the crimes. The prosecution argued that psychosis brought on by self-induced intoxication was no defence for murder. Monzo was found guilty this week of murdering the schoolboy, along with several other offences - which we'll detail in full in our next few posts. Update: Date: 09:34 BST Title: Man who murdered Hainault schoolboy with sword to be sentenced Content: Lucy ManningReporting from the Old Bailey I'm here outside the Old Bailey, where we'll soon hear the sentencing of Marcus Monzo. The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, has already told the Spanish-Brazilian national when he was found guilty of the murder of 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin that he will face a life sentence today. He now needs to set the minimum number of years that Monzo will serve. Before that happens this afternoon, there will be emotional victim impact statements read to the court. The Anjorin family have lost their son Daniel, described as loving, hard working with a gentle character. Others that day in Hainault nearly lost their lives. Both police officers and local residents have struggled to recover from physical injuries and mental trauma and we will hear more about that this morning. During the three weeks of this trial, Daniel Anjorin's father sat and listened to the traumatic details of what unfolded in Hainault that morning. The Anjorin family will see justice being done today, but Monzo took their son and brother from them just moments after he waved goodbye as he went to school. I'll be inside the court from 10:30 BST alongside my colleagues to file updates, and then at 14:00 BST I'll be poised to bring you the first lines on Monzo's sentencing. Stick with us.
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Hainault attack: I'm not a hero, says officer slashed
A police officer who confronted Marcus Monzo after he murdered schoolboy Daniel Anjorin with a samurai sword in Hainault, east London, last year says he does not see himself as a Moloy Campbell engaged in face-to-face fighting with Monzo - receiving a slash wound to his hand as he tried to disarm he said his team of officers are "undoubtedly heroic" for their actions in stopping the the confrontation in April 2024, Insp Campbell told the BBC: "It's a natural instinct: fight or flight, and in that moment it was fight. There was emotion after the event and after it all died down, but there was no fear." He added: "And I don't think there was much fear from anyone actually, because they're police officers and are expected to take action and that's hard drilled into them and they did it well."The series of attacks started at 06:45 BST on 30 April 2024, when Monzo drove a van into a 33-year-old pedestrian, Donato Iwule, and then chased him, slashing him in the then turned his attention to Daniel, 14, who was walking down the residential street he lived on, wearing his school PE kit and headphones, unaware of his presence. Monzo fatally wounded him with a 60cm (24in) later entered a nearby home where a couple and their four-year-old daughter were 37, is being sentenced on Friday at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of murdering Daniel, as well as attempted murder and Campbell said his only thought on the morning of the attack - as he was called to the scene and then heard that his colleague, PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield, had been stabbed by Monzo - was determination. "The only feeling I had was the need to complete what had to be done, which was disarming Mr Monzo and ultimately the preservation of life." Insp Campbell and his colleagues ran towards Monzo and appeared to have him cornered by a set of officer said Monzo "was slashing at me, and I was hitting him, and my baton hit his sword mid-air and we clipped each other."He went across the top of my chest and cut off part of my body worn camera and I made small contact with him but not enough to cause any real concern for him. "I could see that he had real determination in his eyes. We then went back at each other and hit each other and at that point the blade came down my arm, cutting my fleece and then nicking my hand on the way out. "I looked down at my hand and I could see the inside of it and my thumb was hanging down."Former delivery driver Monzo managed to run away but the officers eventually found him a short distance away, fired a number of Tasers and managed to arrest him. The trial was told about the bravery of the officers on that day but Insp Campbell, who tried to return to tackling Monzo, despite his severe injury, brushed off the suggestions he had been heroic. "I think anyone considering themselves a hero is distasteful, so I wouldn't consider myself a hero. Whether I consider other officers heroes is something very different, and I absolutely do."But he was clear he thinks his officers showed heroism every day and Hainault was no different to the bravery they normally Campbell said protecting the public and preventing death and injuries were what officers were here to do and he was prepared to put his life on the line to do his tribute to Daniel Anjorin's family, the officer said he had only got upset in the hospital, when he had discovered the schoolboy had died. Henry De Los Rios Polania, who protected his wife and four-year-old daughter after Monzo burst into their bedroom while they were asleep, said the attack has impacted his whole to the BBC, Mr De Los Rios Polania said Monzo kept asking them if they believed in God. At first they both said yes, but a second time his wife said no. "That's the moment when he grabbed the sword with both his hands and tried to cut the head off Carolina. So when I saw his intentions I was like I can't let this happen, he's going to kill us in there. So I tried to pick up the sword with my own hands." He suffered severe wounds to his hand and has had to have three operations and faces two more. The IT engineer revealed Monzo only stopped when their four-year-old daughter started crying and said "mama" and "papa". "He stepped back because he wasn't expecting the little one in the room, and he just pointed the sword towards my little one's face, and then Carolina's and then to me and he said 'I'm just going to let you live because of your little one.'"Mr De Los Rios Polania said he has spent the last year unable to work, just trying to recover. "All I can say is, I'm surviving," he evidence in court, he said he was initially scared to see Monzo again but had managed to remain calm and the defendant looked away from him, refusing eye bravery he displayed to keep his family safe was, he feels, nothing compared to others. "If people want to call me a hero because I managed to protect my family, then they're most welcome. But the real heroes are the police and the NHS. Those are the real heroes because they saved my life. Because if it wasn't for them, I don't think I would be here."Monzo, of Canning Town, east London, will be sentenced for the murder of Daniel Anjorin; the attempted murder of Sindy Carolina Arias, PC Mechem-Whitfield, and Mr Iwule; the wounding of Insp Campbell and Mr De Los Rios Polania; aggravated burglary, and two weapon possession charges.
