Jeremy Kyle Show guest felt ‘thrown under bus’ before death, inquest told | Ents & Arts News

A man who died of an overdose after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show felt he was “thrown under a bus” on the programme, an inquest has been told.

Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in May 2019, seven days after taking part in the show.

He had taken a lie detector test for the ITV programme The Jeremy Kyle Show after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancée Jane Callaghan. Following his death, the episode was never aired.

A full inquest has now opened at Winchester Coroner’s Court, with Mr Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, giving evidence at the start of the hearing.

Mr Dymond felt he was “thrown under a bus”, according to his son’s witness statement.

“My father was crying as he told me he had been on The Jeremy Kyle Show and that he had been deemed a liar right from the start,” Mr Woolley said. “He said he had been ‘taken for a mug’ and ‘pounced on’ by the presenter.”

‘Made out to be a baddie’

In his statement, Mr Woolley said he had told his father: “What did you expect going on a show like that?” His father told him “he hadn’t realised he would be made a mockery of”, the statement said.

“He told me he was ‘made out to be a baddie’… and that no one had given him any chance to put his point across, and that Jeremy Kyle was constantly ‘on him’. He said he felt he ‘was thrown under a bus’.”

In court, Mr Woolley told the hearing his father was “very upset” after the recording of the programme. Mr Dymond told him in a phone call that Kyle “egged on” the audience to “boo him”, the inquest heard, but Mr Woolley said he struggled to understand everything as “he was crying and speaking so manically”.

Mr Woolley said the “lie detector had cast him as a liar” but his father told him this was not true. He added that his father “was very upset, saying he was being called a liar, everyone had jumped on him, [he was] not with it at all”.

Counsel to the inquest Rachel Spearing asked who had “jumped on him”, to which Mr Woolley replied: “Jeremy Kyle had got the crowd to egg on, to boo at him and stuff, he was cast as the liar before he had even spoken.”

No mention of Kyle in note left for son

The court also heard extracts from a note Mr Dymond left for this son. There was no mention of Kyle or the show in the note.

“In the bottom paragraph he says sorry to you, he asks you not to be mad with him and he knows that you will be but he doesn’t know what to say to you,” Ms Spearing said.

In the note, Mr Dymond continued: “I never ever cheated on Jane and that is what is tearing me to pieces and everyone thinks I am but I’m not a cheat. But I did tell her lies and I lied so much to Jane and that is why she didn’t believe me’.”

Mr Woolley said his father continued to be “very upset” in the days after the recording and would call him up to six times a day.

Son told father he needed to keep ringing for aftercare from show counsellors

He said his father told him he was “getting support and aftercare from the show’s counsellors, I explained to him he needed to get in contact with them and keep ringing them to get the aftercare that he needed”.

The hearing was told that father and son had not been in recent contact before the episode was recorded. It was pointed out that Ms Callaghan had previously claimed Mr Woolley had told her to “get as far away from Steve as you could and told her Steve was no good”.

Mr Woolley admitted this and said it was because he was “angry and upset” he had not had much contact with his father up until this point.

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Mr Dymond’s bravery described in ‘pen portrait’

Following Mr Dymond’s death, ITV axed The Jeremy Kyle Show after 14 years and MPs launched an inquiry into reality TV and the way participants are cared for.

Mr Dymond died of a morphine overdose and also had a heart problem, the inquest was told. The hearing is expected to last a week.

A “pen portrait” of Mr Dymond written by his brother Leslie Dymond was also read out in court on the first day of the hearing.

Leslie Dymond described his brother as a “brave” man and told how he joined the RNLI when he was young.

“He would never miss training,” he said. “It was not an easy job… but Stephen showed up every single time. He was so dedicated to his role.”

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‘Audience had booed Steve Dymond and Kyle had been in his face’

Leslie Dymond’s witness statement was also read aloud in court. In it, he recalled phone conversations after the episode was filmed.

“He sounded completely broken and frightened and told me he could not go on living,” the statement said.

“He did tell me that the audience had booed him, that the presenter, Jeremy Kyle, had been in his face and that he had been followed when he left the stage with cameras and microphones being put in his face. He told me he was jeered and called a failure by the presenter.”

In a statement read to the inquest, Mr Dymond’s cousin Gerald Brierley said it was he who had written Leslie Dymond’s witness statement, based on Leslie’s “raw notes”.

He also said he had agreed with Leslie to take care of legal issues on his behalf “for which he agreed to reward me with a share of any money that he might obtain from ITV”.

Hearing continues

Mr Brierley said: “By ‘I agreed I would do everything’, I meant that I was to keep Leslie Dymond, “out of it” (using his words), and “it” I understood to be, as far as legally allowed, to instruct a solicitor in connection with the death of his brother and manage all affairs concerning any solicitor, paralegal, barrister, coroner, judge, court official, legal aid officer, press officer, member of the press, or other person.”

Coroner Jason Pegg told the hearing that the purpose of the inquest was not to “apportion civil or criminal liability” to any person involved.

In a ruling statement made in 2020, the coroner declared Kyle an “interested person” in the case.

The hearing continues.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK