Jurors have heard how a father who was stabbed to death on a train in Surrey had “taunted” his attacker prior to the incident. 

Giving evidence on Thursday, witness Kayleigh Carter said she heard Lee Pomeroy, 51, being “stern, stubborn and patronising” to Darren Pencille, 36, during a dispute on a London-bound train from Guildford on 4 January.

“There was no point when I thought he’d back down,” she added.

Pencille stabbed Mr Pomeroy just minutes later in what has been described as a “frenzied attack”, striking the IT consultant 18 times in 25 seconds.

Ms Carter, who had been sat in the same carriage as the pair, said she initially thought the dispute – allegedly over the aisle being blocked – was “really petty”.

She said: “I remember one of them, I do not remember which one, said ‘All I did was be in the way.'”

The witness then recalled hearing Mr Pomeroy telling Pencille he had “never dealt with someone with special needs before”, which was “really fuelling the anger” in Pencille.

She said she became panicked after Pencille responded by saying he was “hearing voices right now”, before picking up a phone and saying: “I am going to kill this man”.

Mr Pomeroy remarked on how quickly the call had connected, leading him and Ms Carter to believe it was a fake.

Pencille then accused Mr Pomeroy of being racist, to which he responded with: “If anyone is racist here, it’s you”.

The argument continued “for quite a while” with Pencille “really shouting”, Ms Carter recalled, before seeing Pencille strike Mr Pomeroy.

She said: “I saw blood straight away, I panicked after that because I had to run through it.”

Ms Carter said she got blood on her bag in the the midst of running past the pair to get to the next carriage.

The witness statement from Ms Carter came a day after the jury was shown CCTV footage of the incident.

Pencille’s mother, Ingrid Robertson, also told the court on Thursday that her son had been told in his 20s that he was a paranoid schizophrenic.

She said: “He always thought people were looking at him or wanted to do something to him.”

Pencille has denied murdering Mr Pomeroy, claiming it was self-defence.

The trial continues.

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