A man who died after appearing on the Jeremy Kyle Show felt that “life was not worth living” and had considered jumping out of the taxi on his way home, an inquest has heard.
Steve Dymond was found dead at his flat in Portsmouth, Hampshire, seven days after filming for the ITV programme in May 2019.
He had taken a lie detector test for the show after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan, from Gosport.
Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg has previously ruled that Kyle called Dymond a “serial liar” and said he “would not trust him with a chocolate button”.
Claire Overman, representing Dymond’s brother, Leslie Dymond, and son, Carl Woolley, told a preliminary hearing at Winchester that Leslie Dymond said his brother had told him that the audience had “booed and hissed” at him.
Overman said Dymond had told his brother that he was “incredibly stressed”, in tears and on the “point of collapsing”.
She added that his brother also said that Dymond had told him that he was “completely broken” and was “consumed by what happened on the show” and had talked about considering “jumping out of the taxi on the way home”.
The brother said that it was “like he had been brainwashed, he [Steve Dymond] said he was worthless and couldn’t go on living”, Overman added.
Neil Sheldon KC, representing Kyle, said that it was a “misleading and inaccurate account” based on hearsay and that footage from the show showed the reality of what had happened.
In submissions to the court about the admissibility of Leslie Dymond’s statement, Kyle’s lawyers stated that Leslie Dymond had visited his cousin, Gerald Brierley, in early May 2019 and “speculated” over whether his brother’s experience on the Jeremy Kyle Show might have triggered his death.
They alleged that Brierley had agreed to help Leslie Dymond with the preparation of his evidence, including the statement, in return for a share of any compensation obtained from ITV.
Pegg said that Leslie Dymond had been ruled as medically unfit to attend the full inquest. He said that he would accept his written statement as evidence but then make a decision on its reliability.
The coroner said that the scope of the inquest would cover Dymond’s involvement with the ITV show but also his personal relationships.
He said: “It’s quite relevant there were other things going on in Mr Dymond’s life at the time of his passing. He had been on the Jeremy Kyle Show but I intend, and have always intended, that clearly the breakdown of Mr Dymond’s relationship with Jane Callaghan, which appeared to be the catalyst for going on the Jeremy Kyle Show, and interactions with others around him are relevant and fall in the scope of the inquest.”
Pegg added: “This inquest must focus on the death of Steve Dymond, other matters or other systemic issues that may or may not have existed at the time in relation to other production companies or programmes on TV.
“The inquest will focus on the processes in place with regards to his selection, his attendance for filming and the after care in filming, the other systemic issues are not.”
Pegg said that the full inquest would be held from 3 to 9 September.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
