‘Savage’ Guildford Train Knife Killer Must Serve At Least 28 Years

Published on: 12 Jul, 2019
Updated on: 12 Jul, 2019

Darren Pencille was sentenced to life yesterday for the “savage” murder of Lee Pomeroy, 51, with a knife on a Guildford to Waterloo train last January, the judge ruling he must serve at least 28 years before being considered for parole.

Mr Pomeroy had been taking his 14-year-old son for a day out in London. They boarded the lunchtime train at London Road as did Pencille, 36, who has paranoid schizophrenia. The attacker accused the IT consultant of blocking the aisle and an argument erupted.

Still from train video showing the victim Lee Pomeroy bottom left and Darren Pencille

Within moments, Pencille drew a knife and stabbed Mt Pomeroy 18 times in 20 seconds, the first blow to the neck severing his jugular vein and carotid artery. Pencille fled at Clandon and Mr Pomeroy died a day before his 52nd birthday with his son at his side in Horsley, despite desperate efforts by emergency services and British Transport Police.

Lee Pomeroy

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said anyone who watched the “breathtakingly shocking” train CCTV footage shown during the trial would struggle to see how Pencille could claim to have been acting in self-defence. Old Bailey jurors rejected Pencille’s claim.

The judge told him: “I am satisfied you were the aggressor throughout.”

Pencille’s girlfriend, Chelsea Mitchell, of Farnham, Surrey, was jailed for 28 months for helping him evade police. She had picked him up near Clandon and driven him to their flat where he shaved off his beard, showered and changed his appearance. They then visited a county beauty spot. Both were arrested in her flat 18 hours after the murder.

Pencille, who declined to give evidence, has 14 previous convictions for 19 offences over 19 years, including possession of offensive weapons, violence and dishonesty. In 2010, he had stabbed a flatmate in the neck over a minor disagreement.

Mitchell had seven previous convictions for 10 offences, including assault, threatening behaviour, drunk and disorderly behaviour and battery.

Mr Pomeroy’s widow, Svetlana, said in an impact statement: “On Friday, January 4 my life and that of my son changed forever. My husband of 18 years died in a sudden, violent and distressing way.”

She described his murder as a “senseless loss of life” made worse because it was in front of their son. She said her husband was a vibrant, highly intelligent perfectionist, a loving father and her “guiding light”.

“I have lost my friend, my soul mate and my guide. Lee loved life and it’s been cruelly cut short. I miss my husband every day and to compound the situation [his son] was with his father when he died.”

Of their son, she said: “He’s frightened to be alone at night. He is terrified of loss and of losing me. He’s returned to school but seems to have lost perspective.”