Did Kyle act lead to death of guest?
JUDGE: STAR MAY HAVE CAUSED IT
JEREMY Kyle “may have caused or contributed” to the suspected suicide of a guest on his show, a coroner has ruled.
The TV presenter will have to give evidence at the inquest of 63- yearold construction worker Steve Dymond, who died from a morphine overdose a week after flunking a lie detector test on the show.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, representing Mr Dymond’s family, told a pre- inquest hearing in Winchester yesterday that he ended up on his “hands and knees and thought he was going to pass out” from stress.
“He felt worthless and could not face life any more,” she said.
The lawyer said Mr Dymond had expressed that he was disgusted by the way Kyle, 55, had spoken to him while filming the show in May 2019.
Ms Gallagher said his treatment at the hands of the presenter may have contributed to his death.
She said: “Jeremy Kyle had been in his face.
“He was followed, jeered at and called a failure by the presenter.”
Over the next four days Mr Dymond phoned his family four times a day expressing his anguish, but then went silent.
His body was found three days later at his rented home in Portsmouth, Hants.
In one of his suicide notes Mr Dymond referred to The Jeremy Kyle Show, which was axed by ITV soon after the tragedy.
Six weeks before his TV appearance, Mr Dymond had been referred to an acute mental health team by his GP, who judged he had recurrent suicidal thoughts. Coroner
Jason Pegg declared the TV host an “interested party” and said he planned to quiz Kyle as a witness at the full inquest next summer.
In the footage of his TV appearance, which has never been broadcast, Kyle referred to the fact that Mr Dymond had come off anti- depressants so he could go on the show. Last night Mr Dymond’s family said they welcomed the coroner’s decision, saying the hearing “gives us real confidence Steve’s death will be fully and fearlessly investigated”.