Jeremy Kyle Show guest 'so disturbed' by what happened on ITV show before death, inquest told

An inquest has heard how a man who died seven days after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show felt "disturbed" by what happened to him on the programme. Steve Dymond died of an overdose of morphine and a heart problem at his home in Portsmouth on May 9, 2019.

The 63-year-old took a lie detector test on the Jeremy Kyle show after being accused of cheating on his ex-partner, Jane Callaghan. Mr Dymond's son, Carl Woolley, told an inquest at Winchester Coroner's Court today how his dad felt "thrown under the bus" by the ITV show.

The inquest heard extracts from Carl Woolley’s witness statement in which he described how his dad felt after appearing on the show. In a statement, he said: "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. He said he had been ‘taken for a mug’ and ‘pounced on’ by the presenter.

“I said to him at one point, ‘what did you expect going on a show like that?’ and he said to me that he hadn’t realised he would be made a mockery of. 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’.”

The court heard Mr Woolley recorded in his witness statement that Mr Dymond told him he was booed on stage, and also that he was struggling to understand everything his father was saying on the phone to him “because he was crying and speaking so manically”.

Mr Wooley told the inquest he had not been in recent contact with his dad before his uncle Leslie Dymond contacted to say his father was “very down”. Mr Woolley said he phoned his father who told him that Jeremy Kyle had “egged on” the audience to “boo him” and that he was “cast as the liar”.

Mr Woolley said his dad told him that the “lie detector had cast him as a liar, he said to me he wasn’t lying”. He was telling the truth, he was not lying and telling the truth and asking why it said he had lied.”

He added that his dad “was very upset saying he was being called a liar, everyone had jumped on him, (he was) not with it at all”. When asked by counsel to the inquest Rachel Spearing who had “jumped on him”, 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.”

Carl Woolley said his dad would call him up to six times a day after the appearance on the Jeremy Kyle Show. He told the inquest: “He was OK at some points but very down.” He added he tried to encourage his dad to continue getting after-care support from ITV. He said: “He told me he was getting support and after care from the (Jeremy Kyle) Show’s counsellors, I explained to him he needed to get in contact with them and keep ringing them to get the after care that he needed.

“He told me had rang and I said he needed to get some help – ‘Ring the show, ring the show’.” Mr Woolley said the last time his dad tried to make contact was a missed call on his phone.

Leslie Dymond said he had “never heard” his brother “be so disturbed by anything before” when he recounted their conversations in the days after Steve Dymond appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show. Leslie said in a statement: “We did talk about what support Stephen was getting from the show and he told me he was supposed to get it but nothing had been arranged.

“I tried to convince Stephen to see his doctor or visit a counsellor as it was clear to me that he was not coping at all and although at times I thought I was getting somewhere, he clearly needed professional help, but the reality was this was a long bank holiday weekend.

“He told me he had contacted the show since the filming but that he had not heard anything about help being provided. I was horrified to hear what had happened to Stephen and I had never heard him talk this way or be so disturbed by anything before.

“He kept saying he could ‘not go on’ because of what had happened and although I spent ages trying to get him out of these thoughts, as did his son Carl, I knew when he did not reply to my messages that he had probably died.” The inquest continues.