A man with a knife stabbed a dad 18 times in front of his teenage son because he was blocking the aisle on a train to London, a court heard today.

Lee Pomeroy was killed the day before his birthday as his 14-year-old son watched, just minutes after boarding the train.

The 51-year-old allegedly was knifed to death on Jan. 4 by Darren Pencille after an argument, when the accused allegedly said, “Ignorance is bliss.”

The court heard that Pencille, 35, may have made comments to Pomeroy and his son because they were in his way as he moved down the carriage.

Passengers reported hearing Pencille call Pomeroy derogatory names, with the dad saying, “You shouldn’t have humiliated me in front of my kid,” the court was told.

Pencille is alleged to have said, “You touch me, you touch me and see what happens at the next stop,” adding, “I dare you, I dare you. Put your hand on me, because it won’t end nicely.”

As the train pulled into Clandon train station, Pencille allegedly stabbed Pomeroy in the neck, before knifing him 17 more times and fleeing.

The court heard he spent the day on the south coast with his girlfriend, Chelsea Mitchell, before changing his appearance.

Mitchell, 27, denies one count of assisting an offender but is said to have bought razors and clippers to help give him a new look.

Prosecutor Jacob Hallam QC said: “At one minute past 1 in the afternoon on Friday, January 4, Mr. Pomeroy and his 14-year-old son boarded a train at London Road in Guildford in Surrey bound for London Waterloo.

“Lee Pomeroy did not leave that train alive. Within five minutes of boarding it, Mr. Pomeroy had been stabbed in the neck by the first defendant, Darren Pencille. That wound to the neck was the first of 18 injuries with a knife that Mr. Pencille inflicted on Lee Pomeroy on that train on that day,” said Hallam.

“A little over an hour after he boarded the train, and despite the best efforts of emergency services who rushed to save his life, Lee Pomeroy was dead. As the emergency services rushed to save Mr. Pomeroy’s life, so the first defendant rushed away from the scene of his crime.”

The court heard a passenger told cops she saw Pencille pull out his phone before he knifed the dad and say into it, “I’m going to kill this man.”

Hallam said, “Mr. Pomeroy reacted to that and she recalls him saying, ‘You got through to them quick,’ and so it appears, doesn’t it, that by those words that Lee Pomeroy did not think Mr. Pencille had actually spoken to anyone. But he had. Because analysis of his call data showed that he had spoken at the time to someone. And that someone was the second defendant, his girlfriend.”

The court heard Pomeroy and his son were dropped off at London Road station at 12:46 p.m. by Pomeroy’s wife and Pencille was dropped off by Mitchell at 12:47 p.m.

The three boarded the same carriage of the London-bound train via different doors. Pencille then made his way down the carriage close to where the Pomeroys were.

Hallam said: “It may be that they were blocking his way because he chose to say something to them, and the something that he said was perhaps rather snide at best. Because he said to them, ‘Ignorance is bliss.’ It appears he said it twice. That prompted Lee Pomeroy to respond and to ask what it was that he meant by those words. An argument began between the two men, which quickly became heated.”

Pencille, of Farnham, Surrey, denies one count of murder. Mitchell denies one count of assisting an offender.