Man charged with train murder hides in dock and rants: ‘I’m hearing voices’
A MAN accused of stabbing a train passenger to death in front of his teenage son yesterday appeared in court where he hid on the floor of the dock and ranted about being “paranoid” and “hearing voices”.
Darren Pencille, 35, was said to have knifed computer programmer Lee Pomeroy nine times on a train from Guildford to Waterloo.
Mr Pomeroy was travelling to London with his 14-year-old son the day before his 52nd birthday.
Pencille, of Farnham, Surrey, refused to stand up as he was remanded in custody following a hearing at Staines magistrates court where he was accused of murder and possessing an offensive weapon.
When asked to stand to hear the charges being laid against him, Pencille crouched down out of sight in the dock and yelled: “They are making me paranoid. Innocent until proved guilty. They are making me paranoid. I am hearing voices.”
The court was told how he and Mr Pomeroy boarded the train at the same time at London
Road station at around 1pm last Friday.
It appears the two men were blocking each other’s way and there was an argument, the court heard.
Sally Lakin, prosecuting, said CCTV footage shows Pencille moving away and Mr Pomeroy following close behind. Pencille is seen walking into the next carriage with Mr Pomeroy still following him, Ms Lakin added.
As he walks further down, Mr Pomeroy is still only a short distance away. Pencille then allegedly stabbed the father of one and fled the train at the next station at Clandon, about five minutes into the journey.
He was said to have clambered over a fence to make his getaway, discarding his blood-stained hat and jacket. As Mr Pomeroy, of Guildford, lay fatally wounded, the train continued to Horsley, where paramedics tried to save his life. The suspect was arrested at 6am on Saturday at his girlfriend Chelsea Mitchell’s home in Farnham.
Wearing black-rimmed spectacles and a grey tracksuit, clean-shaven Pencille appeared with bandages on fingers of his left hand.
After confirming his name and date of birth, he turned on the public gallery. Bending down so he could not be seen in the glass-fronted dock, Pencille was requested to stand up by magistrate Helen Mattey.
But he refused and pointed through a gap in the reinforced glass at the press bench, saying: “All them people over there are making me paranoid.
“They are recording me and taking notes for no reason. Innocent until proved guilty. They are making me paranoid. I am hearing voices.” Ms Mattey remanded Pencille in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court yesterday. Asked if he understood, the defendant replied in a muffled voice from the floor of the dock: “I am listening, yes Miss.”
Pencille did not enter any pleas. In a separate magistrates hearing, Mitchell, 27, denied assisting an offender. The mother of a daughter, aged three, also allegedly bought razor blades so Pencille could shave off his beard.
Mitchell also later appeared at Guildford Crown Court in a separate hearing. Pencille and Mitchell were both remanded in custody to appear on February 7. Darren Pencille refused to stand, saying the Press made him paranoid – an Asian man of slim build dressed in black – asked to try the engine and then roared away from the scene.
As Maria’s family and police launched a desperate search, the £4,650 car was found abandoned less than a mile away 80 minutes later – without the youngster.
She was later found in a street less than half a mile away. Maria, whose family are from Romania, was said to be frightened but unhurt.
Yesterday detectives said Maria had been wearing a white top and red trousers but was found with “an additional item of clothing”.
The drama happened after Maria’s car-trader uncle Gheorghe Stelica asked his brother to show the car to the bogus buyer because he was out of London.