Jeremy Kyle denies ‘humiliating’ guest a week before his death

Presenter defends words and actions as ‘typical’ part of show despite Steve Dymond apparent distress

Jeremy Kyle appeared to “goad” a sobbing guest who failed a lie detector test days before his suspected suicide in footage played to his inquest.
Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, a week after filming for the ITV programme in May 2019.
An inquest is considering to what extent the talk show, which was axed four days after his death, had been aware of his mental health troubles before allowing him to appear on the show.
Mr Dymond, a digger driver, had broken up with his partner Jane Callaghan in February 2019 after being accused of infidelity. The couple then rekindled their relationship and jointly decided to go on the Jeremy Kyle Show to take a lie detector test.
On Thursday, previously unseen footage of Mr Dymond’s appearance, which was never aired, was played to Winchester Coroner’s Court.
It showed Kyle asking Mr Dymond if he had ever passionately kissed anyone else since the start of his relationship with Ms Callaghan before asking Mr Dymond why he said “no”, as part of the test.
After the participant responded by saying: “Cos, I was telling the truth,” Kyle told Mr Dymond and the studio audience: “Test says you’re a liar pal.”
The revelation prompted loud gasps from the audience, with some laughter heard – while Mr Dymond appeared to look side to side in apparent distress, with his mouth open.
Kyle then announced that Mr Dymond had failed “every single question” relating to infidelity – prompting Ms Callaghan to shout “Oh my god,” and storming off the stage in tears.
Mr Dymond then stood up to approach Kyle, shaking his head, before saying: “Oh my God, I was never unfaithful,” prompting the audience to boo loudly.
In a separate part of the studio where filming continued, Ms Callaghan was seen sobbing uncontrollably, while accusing Mr Dymond of ruining “everything”.
When Mr Dymond continued to protest his innocence, Kyle addressed with: “So a serial liar goes onto the Jeremy Kyle show and gets called a liar and my tests wrong, yeah?”
“I swear to God, I’ll swear on anything,” responded Mr Dymond, with visible tears in his eyes.
Kyle then responded with: “Don’t start crying mate, the hardest thing in my job is … I’m paid to read it out – you asked us to do that, why would you fail?”
The presenter also told Mr Dymond: “I wouldn’t trust you with a chocolate button mate – honestly you are – I don’t think you even know what the truth is.”
As the clip neared to an end, Kyle said: “Let me tell you what I know. I don’t actually take any pleasure in this at all, contrary to what some people think.”
Giving evidence, the presenter denied that a guest was “humiliated” on the controversial talk show seven days before dying in a suspected suicide.
Rachel Spearing, the counsel to the inquest, asked Kyle: “Do you believe he was humiliated?”
The presenter replied: “I do not and I have read over time apparently I called him a traitor – I didn’t – that he was cowering.
“I did what I always do and always did. It was what the show, as I understood the show, is. Sad as it might sound, it was a typical part.”
Kyle denied ever being involved in the selection of guests for the show and said he had been sent a dossier the night before filming detailing the approximately 20 guests involved in a day’s recording.
“I want to make a point, I have in my 14-and-a-half years not been involved in the selection of guests,” he said. “I was employed absolutely as the presenter.”
He added: “The production, the producing, the after care, the lie detector test were not my responsibility, I was the presenter.”
Kyle went on to defend the “direct” way he presented the now-axed ITV show, saying it was also “empathetic” and “honest”.
The inquest heard that Kyle asked Mr Dymond during filming if it bothered him “that she didn’t have an orgasm or are you a typical male and do not give a toss?”.
Maya Sikand KC, representing Mr Dymond’s family, asked Kyle: “This is pretty belittling isn’t it?”
The presenter replied: “I wouldn’t agree with you. I would say it’s the part. From the beginning I had a joke with him.
“He did get upset but he wasn’t upset from the beginning. That’s the journey and that’s the way the Jeremy Kyle show was.”
The episode, filmed on May 2, has never been aired. On May 13, four days after Mr Dymond’s death, ITV abruptly pulled the show off air.
The inquest heard on Wednesday that Mr Dymond had rung the show “40 to 50 times” as he was “absolutely desperate” to be on it.
He had previously been diagnosed with a depressive disorder in 1995 and he had taken overdoses on four occasions – in January 1995, twice in December 2002, and in April 2005.
Mr Dymond had also attempted to cut his wrists in December 2002, and he was sectioned on Sept 22 2005 after a mental health assessment found he was at “risk of suicide”.
When he died on May 9 2019, there was a “potentially lethal” amount of morphine in his system, and he was suffering from left ventricular hypertrophy, a heart condition.