A man who died of an overdose after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show felt he was “thrown under a bus” on the show, an inquest has heard.
Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in May 2019, seven days after taking part in the programme.
He had taken a lie detector test for The Jeremy Kyle Show after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancee 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” on the show, 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.”
Jeremy Kyle. Pic: Rex
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. He told him in a phone call that Kyle “egged on” the audience to “boo him”, the inquest heard, but that 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 was telling the truth, he was not lying and telling the truth and asking why it said he had lied.”
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.”
The court also heard extracts from a note Mr Dymond left for this son.
“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.
“He knows sorry isn’t enough and he says that: ‘I just don’t want to have to be here no more. My life feels empty without Jane. I just loved her so much’.”
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’.”
The court heard there was no mention of Kyle in the note.
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.
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”.
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.
In a ruling statement made in 2020, Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg declared Kyle an “interested person” in the case and said the show “may have caused or contributed” to Mr Dymond’s death.
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
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