A man who was stabbed 18 times in 25 seconds as he rode a train with his teen son appeared to have taunted his killer, a court has heard.
Lee Pomeroy, 51, was killed minutes after boarding a train to London from Guildford in January. Jurors at London's Old Bailey were told the attack happened after an argument about the blocking of an aisle.
Witness Kayleigh Carter said that it appeared that the IT consultant was “taunting” his alleged killer Darren Pencille.
Justin Rouse QC, defending Mr Pencille, asked whether Mr Pomeroy was picking on the 36-year-old.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, Ms Carter replied: “I wouldn’t say picking on him, but he was taunting him.”
Questioned later by prosecutor Jacob Hallam QC, she said that she saw an older man with greying hair and a younger black man enter her carriage at the far end. At first, they were talking at a normal volume, but it “seemed like they had a tiff”, she added.
She did not pay them much attention at first, until they moved closer with Mr Pomeroy following 36-year-old Mr Pencille.
“One of them, I do not remember which one, said ‘All I did was be in the way’.” she said.
Ms Carter said she believed the younger man was angry, but that she did not sense similar emotions from the elder. Instead, he was “stern, stubborn and patronising”, she told the court.
She added that the first thing she heard that was “really fuelling the anger”, was she heard Mr Pomeroy say: “I have never dealt with someone with special needs before”.
She told jurors at that Mr Pencille then said, “I am hearing voices right now”, which scared her. Afterwards she said he picked up a phone and she heard him say: ”I am going to kill this man”.
However, she added that she she did not think the call was real as it appeared to connect very quickly.
“I remember the other man’s response was exactly what I was thinking,” she told the court. “He said, ‘Well you got through really quickly’.”
She said that both of the men were saying they were going to fight at the next station, with the pair eventually becoming “really up and personal”, adding how “neither of them were backing down”.
Hearing Mr Pencille call Mr Pomeroy a racist, she said the older man he replied that if anyone was a racist, it was him.
The argument escalated and Mr Pencille began “really shouting” before striking Mr Pomeroy, Ms Carter said, adding: ”I saw blood straight away, I panicked after that because I had to run through it.” Blood spattered onto her bag as she passed the pair.
The court heard previously how Mr Pomeroy, who was due to turn 52 the day after the “quick and frenzied attack”, was stabbed 18 times in 25 seconds.
Once the train stopped at Clandon station, the prosecution claim Mr Pencille escaped into a woodland area.
Afterwards, Mr Pencille’s girlfriend, Chelsea Mitchell, 27, allegedly picked him up and bought hair clippers and razors for him to change his appearance.
Mr Pencille, of no fixed address, denies murder, and Ms Mitchell, of Farnham in Surrey, has pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender.
The trial continues.
Additional reporting by PA
