A train passenger accused of murdering a 51-year-old father stopped taking his anxiety medication but used cannabis on a daily basis which could ‘make him paranoid’, a court has heard today.
Darren Pencille, 36, stabbed IT consultant Lee Pomeroy 18 times in less than 30 seconds on board the Guildford to London Waterloo train on January 4, the Old Bailey heard.
An argument reportedly broke out after Pencille made a ‘snide’ remark as he jostled past Mr Pomeroy and his 14-year-old son heading along the gangway.
Darren Pencille, 36, stopped taking anxiety medication and smoked cannabis which often made him paranoid, the Old Bailey heard today
IT consultant Lee Pomeroy, 51, was with his son on the train from Guildford to Waterloo on January 4 when he was killed
Following the stabbing Pencille hopped off the train when it pulled up at Clandon Station where he was met by girlfriend Chelsea Mitchell, 28.
She is accused of ferrying him away from the scene after helping him change his appearance and carrying out internet searches into the killing.
Pencille denies murder while Mitchell denies assisting an offender.
Chelsea Mitchell, 28, pictured arriving at court, described how Pencille became anxious around people
Pencille was seen by psychiatrists between 2004 and 2018 during which time he was prescribed medication used to treat anxiety disorders, depression and other psychotic conditions.
Giving evidence today, Mitchell told jurors Pencille was ‘quite paranoid about his food and drink’ and would not have either if he thought someone had touched it.
Similarly, his ‘instinctive reaction’ would be to throw away any clothes with holes or stains, the court heard.
He lived in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, because he ‘really struggled to live anywhere near London’ because it was ‘too busy for him’ and he would ‘sometimes have anxiety attacks’ if surrounded by strangers, Mitchell said.
‘Did he get more anxious when people were close to him?’ asked Pencille’s barrister Justin Rouse QC.
‘Yes,’ she replied.
Jurors heard it would sometimes take Pencille four hours to complete a one-hour journey as he would ‘keep getting off the train because he was anxious’.
During every train ride he would ring Mitchell ‘to seek comfort and reassurance’ and would usually opt for ‘a quiet time of train’ such as the 1pm service he took on January 4, the court was told.
The murder trial jury was previously shown footage of the pair arguing on the train
Pencille would also try to time his arrival for just as the train pulled up to avoid having to wait on the platform with people, Mitchell said.
Jurors have heard he was wearing a coat, hat and sunglasses on the day of the stabbing.
Mitchell said the shades were ‘like a block-out’ to avoid making eye contact with people.
Asked what he was afraid of, Mitchell replied: ‘Someone might hurt him.’
She told jurors that receiving a phone call from Pencille while he was on a train was ‘quite normal’.
Jurors heard that when he was arrested over the fatal knife attack in January police seized and analysed his iPhone, which contained a series of knife pictures
Jurors were handed a 17-page bundle containing the pictures, which included lock-knives, sheathed blades and another depicting a gloved hand holding a knife (pictured)
‘When he said someone was following him, that was not something he would normally say,’ Mitchell continued.
‘It would normally be there was a lot of people around him, not following him.’
Mr Rouse asked: ‘At some point in the call did he tell you he was hearing voices?’
Mitchell said he did: ‘He’s told me many times before.’
She confirmed Pencille had stopped taking his medication because it made him ‘drowsy’ and he ‘didn’t like to feel like that’.
Some of the knife pictures that were recovered by the police from Pencille’s iPhone
The disturbing images of multiple attack knives were shown to the Old Bailey jury today
During cross-examination, prosecutor Jacob Hallam QC pressed her about Pencille ‘keeping calm on trains’ and ‘taking the medication he was meant to take’ to help with that.
‘So, the thing that would have helped keep him calm he didn’t take?’ he asked.
When Mitchell replied ‘Yes’, he added: ‘But what did the cannabis do to him?’
She told jurors: ‘It would calm him down. It could also make him paranoid as well.’
Mr Hallam commented: ‘He didn’t take his medication, but he took his cannabis.’
He added that Pencille also ‘took a knife’.
Jurors have been shown a folder containing photos of various knives found saved on Pencille’s phone following his arrest.
Images of the enormous haul were released today by the Met Police after being shown to the jury
A small knife with a carved metal handle that featured in a photo found on Pencille’s iPhone
‘Did you know that he had an interest in knives?’ Mr Hallam asked.
‘No,’ Mitchell said.
‘This is a man that you love, and you didn’t know about his love of knives?’ the prosecutor continued.
Mitchell said she was ‘surprised’ to see the images, adding: ‘I didn’t know he had an album on his phone of this.’
She remarked that the knife used to stab Mr Pomeroy had ‘a pretty big blade’ and confirmed Pencille would be at her flat ‘pretty much all the time unless he was going to see his family’.
‘But I never saw a knife at the house,’ she added.
Pencille was allegedly heard threatening ‘I’m going to kill this man’ as he spoke into his phone moments before the fatal stabbing. Pictured is a knife photo on his phone
The knives ranged in appearance, and included this flick-knife with a wooden handle
Mitchell told jurors she fell in love with him after becoming pregnant in early 2018, despite not having seen much of each other in the months since they first met the previous September.
Mr Hallam asked her about her arrest and interview when she was shown stills and CCTV footage of what happened on the train and ‘the man you love stabbing a man in the neck’.
She said she still loves him even after learning that Pencille ‘had stabbed another man in the neck a few years before he stabbed the victim in this case in the neck’ and threatened to kill a worker at the address he was living at last April.
Pencille is on trial for murder at the Old Bailey over the incident in January, which shocked the nation
A small blade that fits into a small triangle of plastic and can be flicked out. They are illegal in the UK
The prosecutor challenged Mitchell about a letter she wrote to Pencille in Belmarsh under the name ‘Marie’ in which she urged him to ‘keep fighting through as I’ll be by your side’, in breach of a bail condition not to contact him, with the ‘risk of going to prison’.
‘I would suggest you were motivated to write the letter in breach of your bail and using a false name for the same reasons you were motivated to help him on January 4,’ Mr Hallam said.
But Mitchell told jurors she did not help him: ‘I didn’t know what he’d done on that train.’
Pencille, of no fixed address, denies murder while Mitchell, from Farnham in Surrey, denies assisting an offender.
The trial continues.