Man accused of killing a 14-year-old boy in a series of sword attacks in Hainault east London has told a jury he tried to cook and eat his cat but cannot remember attacking anybody.

Brazilian-Spanish national Marcus Monzo, 37, denies the murder of Daniel Anjorin and the attempted murder of four others in Hainault on 30 April last year, said on the morning of the attacks he felt the onset of “something like Armageddon”.

He told the Old Bailey he packed two swords and some clothes and then set out to help his parents, as he believed “the world was collapsing”.

When he was asked whether he could remember attacking five people and killing Daniel, he said he could not.

Mr Monzo said he had strangled his cat and tried to cook and eat it because he was “receiving messages” telling him to “get rid of the cat”.

He said he then began to believe the world was about to end and that his parents were in danger.

“It was extremely confusing,” he said.

“The idea I was receiving was that there was something happening… I didn’t know exactly what.

“Something like an Armageddon.”

Mr Monzo said he packed items he would need for survival including clothes and two swords.

“I had this idea the world was collapsing …I had an idea that I was not going to come back.”

But, he said he “definitely never intended to harm anybody” with the swords and that he took them with him to “empower” him.

Monzo said he then set off towards his parents’ house.

He used his van to knock Mr Iwule into a garden, then slashed him in the neck with a samurai sword before the victim escaped, jurors heard.

Asked why he changed direction, the defendant said: “That is something I have thought about a lot, every day, why just a block away from my parents house? A block later I would have arrived at their house.”

He then virtually murdered 14-Year-Old Daniel, who was wearing headphones on his way to school, the court heard.

Pc Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield chased the defendant through alleyways before he struck her three times with the sword which had a 60cm blade, prosecutors say.

Monzo then allegedly entered a property and attacked a couple who were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom with their young daughter nearby.

He also struck Inspector Moloy Campbell once with the sword before he was finally arrested.

However, the savage said he had no memory of what happened until he was tasered.

He told jurors: “My memory after I left my home… gradually it becomes very vague and abstract… not very clear.”

Monzo said he was smoking cannabis “three or four times a week” before the attack, but denied doing so on the day.

Jurors heard that he told an expert that cannabis was a “major contributor” to the rampage, but he played down its effects on Friday. He told jurors he did not think it “guided” the killing.

Monzo had earlier spoken of taking psychedelics and drinking his own urine years before amid an interest in spirituality.