Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in May 2019, seven days after he failed a lie detector test while filming for The Jeremy Kyle Show.
Jeremy Kyle has defended both his talk show and its presenting style during an inquest into the death of a man who appeared on the show.
This came as excerpts from unaired programmes were shown to the court for the first time.
Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in May 2019, seven days after he took part in the show.
The coroner determined that he died from a combination of a morphine overdose and left ventricular hypertrophy of the heart.
Mr Dymond took a lie detector test for the ITV show following allegations of cheating by his ex-fiancée Jane Callaghan. No episode was broadcast following his death and the series was later cancelled.
Kyle arrived at Winchester Coroner’s Court on the third day of the inquest, accompanied by his lawyer, deputy and several others, in a dark blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie. He then sat motionless until he was called to give evidence.
The 59-year-old presenter stood by the show’s structure, saying the stories featured were a “journey” which included both “conflict” and “resolution”, and said: “He’s direct but sensitive and honest”.
An extract from an unaired episode was shown in court, in which Kyle tells Mr Dimond: “You might look like you’re sitting there and upset. People might see this and think it’s the worst.”
After announcing the results of the lie detector test, Kyle said, “The test shows you’re lying, mate. You failed every question.”
The clip can be heard to hear boos from the audience, Ms Callahan breaking down in tears, and a shocked Mr Dimond saying: I’ve never been unfaithful.”
Kyle responded in the footage, “The studio thought you were telling the truth. I don’t even trust chocolate chips, mate.”
Kyle: “Be a man, grow your balls and tell her the truth”
In another clip, Kyle is heard telling Mr Dimond: “Be a man, grow your balls and tell her the truth.”
In another clip, the presenter asks “Does anybody have a shovel?” as Mr Dimond tries to explain why he messaged another woman.
Kyle denied urging the audience to antagonise Mr Dimond, telling the inquest: “Absolutely not. I asked them to clap,” and said the footage showed he “defused tension”. He defused the situation rather than inflaming it.
When asked by his lawyer, Nick Sheldon KC, if he “incited the audience to boo Mr. Dimond,” “attacked” or “booed” him, “jumped in his face” or called him a “traitor” or a “failure,” Kyle said, “No, not at all.
He further told the court he thought the show had the “right approach” and that he had “always believed a story was a journey”.
He said he could “definitely” see a journey in Dimond’s case, even when he and his partner were “faced with the truth”. He said “it’s a conflict and a resolution”.
He also clarified that he was “not involved in the selection of guests” for his TV show, and was only “absolutely appointed as the presenter”.
Kyle later explained further that he was a persona on screen, adding that “the creation, the producing, the follow-up, the lie detector tests were not my responsibility. I was the presenter”. The show was created but he was not trained to deal with emotional guests.
When the inquest’s solicitor Rachel Spearing asked if he thought Mr Dimond had been humiliated on the show, Kyle replied “I don’t think so”.
Maya Sikand KC, lawyer for Steve Dimonds, family and Kyle, explained that some of the things said to Mr Dimond during the show were “derogatory”, to which Mr Dimond replied “I don’t agree with that”. He said that while Dymond had been upset during filming, “he wasn’t upset from the beginning. That was the process and that’s what The Jeremy Kyle Show was.” It was ITV’s most popular daytime show until it was cancelled on 10 May 2019, the day after Dymond’s death.
ITV supported Kyle at the time, and the channel’s director of television, Kevin Lygo, confirmed that the channel would film a new show with him as a pilot, although not at the same 9.30am time slot. Lie detector test process Ahead of Kyle’s testimony on Thursday morning, the coroner was told that after filming had finished, Dymond had told investigators that he “wished he’d died”.
Mr Dymond had called ITV 40 to 50 times in a “desperate” attempt to become a guest on the show, the coroner had previously heard.
The court was played a clip from an unaired programme showing Mr Dymond being informed about the lie detector test process.
In the video, Mr Dymond asks the polygraph examiner employed by ITV if the test is “99.9% accurate”, to which the examiner responds that it is “95% accurate” and that there is a “low risk of error”.
The examiner also reminds Mr Dymond that “if you fail one question, you fail them all”.
The clip also shows Mr Dymond watching a video in which he informs participants about the test and advises them to be “truthful, open and honest”.
Lie detector test results add “an element of drama”
Chris Withen, ITV’s director of content compliance at the time Mr Dymond was appearing on ITV’s programme, spoke about the second and third days of the investigation. On the witness stand.
He explained that the lie detector test was “very firmly established as an editorial feature of the show”.
He said Kyle was not informed of the result of the lie detector test in advance, but found out in real time while the show was being filmed.
Mr Wissen said: “He opened the envelope, revealed the result and told the guests what the result was. There was an element of drama to this moment.”
The hearing heard that the show’s aftercare team provided eight to 10 cognitive behavioural therapy sessions after the show to boost Mr Dymond’s self-esteem and confidence and to help him resolve “the issues of dealing with lies”. No consultations were held due to his death.
Steph McDonald, a trained psychiatric nurse who is part of the programme’s aftercare team, also gave evidence.
Mr Callaghan and Mr Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, took the stand on the first day of the inquest.
It was heard at Wednesday’s hearing that Mr Dymond had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder in 1995 and had overdosed twice in January 1995, twice in December 2002 and four times in April 2005.
The court heard that he also made what appeared to be a suicide attempt in 2002.
In September 2005 he was admitted to hospital and a psychiatric evaluation concluded that he was “at risk of suicide”.
Mr Dymond’s death sparked criticism of the duty of care reality TV programmes owe to participants, following the deaths of two former Love Island contestants, Sophie Gradon and Mike Talatiis, in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
