Tragic Jeremy Kyle guest Steve Dymond was warned going on the show was a ‘stupid’ idea, inquest told

A Jeremy Kyle guest whose appearance ended in tragedy was warned going on the show was a ‘stupid’ idea, an inquest has been told.

Ex-RNLI volunteer Steve Dymond appeared on the show on May 2, 2019, to try to prove to his on-off partner Jane Callaghan, then 48, that he didn’t cheat on her.

The 63-year-old, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, failed a lie detector test and was found dead seven days later in the £100-a-week room he rented, having overdosed on morphine.

The Winchester inquest heard he was ‘booed’ by the audience during the filming after the test suggested he had been lying about having not cheated on his partner.

He was slammed on camera by presenter Kyle, who then said: ‘Grow a pair of balls and tell her the God-damn truth.’ The presenter later argued he has an ’empathetic’ on-air style.

Michelle Thaxter, Mr Dymond’s landlady, today said she urged the construction worker not to appear on the programme because ‘you might hear words you don’t want to hear’.

Jeremy Kyle was seen leaving the inquest in Winchester after giving evidence

The 63-year-old died of a suspected suicide seven days after going on the show with partner Jane Callaghan (pictured) 

After Mr Dymond failed the test, Mrs Thaxter said he was ‘distraught’ and ‘broken’, and said he threatened to take morphine and jump out of a moving taxi.

He had rung ITV 40 to 50 times in ‘desperate’ attempts to become a guest on the show, the inquest previously heard.

Mrs Thaxter said Mr Dymond was ‘100 per cent focused’ on proving that he didn’t cheat on his on-off partner because ‘his life was about Jane’.

Footage of the programme shows Kyle entering the stage saying Mr Dymond was accused of lying about his age, about being in the Royal Navy, about grandchildren, and about missing Viagra.

The TV presenter previously told Winchester Coroner’s Court that Mr Dymond was just another ‘typical’ guest on his show and insisted that he showed him ’empathy’.

Giving evidence for the first time, Kyle denied ‘belittling’ or ‘humiliating’ Mr Dymond and said he displayed ‘care’ for the 63-year-old.

He claimed he had been ‘very complimentary’ of Mr Dymond and said he tried to ‘de-escalate’ and ‘calm down’ him down when he sobbed over his failed lie detector results.

The unaired clip of Mr Dymond on the show was played at the inquest

WhatsApp messages between producers about Mr Dymond were read out in court 

Giving evidence today, Mrs Thaxter suggested Mr Dymond ‘was in such a deep hole he couldn’t see a way out’.

Mr Dymond contacted Mrs Thaxter in February 2019 after seeing her advertisement for a room on Gumtree.

‘He came and stayed with us for a few weeks, he was looking for somewhere to live’, she said.

‘He split up with his partner and he rented a room from us. We sat down and had a chat… He was just a really, really nice guy.’

Mrs Thaxter said she later had a call from Mr Dymond saying him and Ms Callaghan had got back together and that he would be round to collect his belongings.

‘He mentioned about The Jeremy Kyle Show’, Mrs Thaxter said. ‘My words to him were ‘I think you are stupid because you might hear words you don’t want to hear’.

‘Jane thought he was sleeping with or seeing some other woman and he wanted to prove he wasn’t. My opinion was I don’t think you should [go on the show].

Kyle gave evidence at the inquest, claiming he had an ’empathetic’ approach to Mr Dymond 

‘He really did love her, he just wanted to prove to her he was not lying.

‘He said about the lie detector test and did mention to me about seeing his doctor and something to do with his medication.

‘He was never happy, I’ve never seen him happy. He was never upset, but never seemed happy.

‘All he wanted was to get back with this woman. He loved her, he adored her.

‘He was focused 100 per cent on going on the show and proving to Jane that he had not lied.’

Mrs Thaxter said she would never have allowed Mr Dymond to rent a room if she knew about his history of self-harm.

After the show, Mr Dymond called Mrs Thaxter sobbing, explaining he failed the lie detector test and wanted to return to the room he rented from her.

She said: ‘He said he failed the lie detector test and he felt like he was going to take the morphine and jump out the taxi.

Mr Dymond, 63, died at his home from a combination of morphine overdose and left ventricular hypertrophy in his heart 

Kyle told Mr Dymond to ‘grow a pair of balls and tell her the God-damn truth’, the inquest  heard (stock photo)

‘At that point you can’t say no to someone who is so distraught. It scared me to know someone felt that way, it was horrible.

‘He was so broken, crying. He had nowhere else to go, literally nowhere else to go.’

When Mrs Thaxter came home from work that evening, she spent two hours consoling him.

‘I’ve never seen a man cry like that. We sat down for two hours and he told me everything that happened, the way he was treated on the show.’

Mrs Thaxter said Mr Dymond told her ‘he was not treated good’, that he was ‘booed off stage’, and that ‘Jeremy backed him into a corner’.

She continued: ‘He said he told so many lies. He said he got back in contact with his son and found out he has grandchildren so I tried to guide him on that.’

She said he had ‘money worries’ and that she still receives post for him from financial companies, adding: ‘I think he was out to impress Jane, living a life he could not afford.’

Mrs Thaxter said she had not seen Mr Dymond since May 5. By May 9 – the day of his death – she said she had become concerned.

He appears visibly upset during the show 

Steve Dymond’s unaired appearance on the Jeremy Kyle Show from 2019 was shown for the first time at the inquest into his death

She said her son peeped into Mr Dymond’s room and immediately called his mother, saying ‘you better come home mum’.

Mrs Thaxter said: ‘Everything was going through my mind and I opened the door and I could see straight away that he was dead.’

She said that she then called for the emergency services, which attended.

Sam Kendall, Mrs Thaxter’s son, said he had repeatedly banged on Mr Dymond’s door and shouted his name, leading to him becoming concerned.

Mr Kendall said days earlier Mr Dymond told him he was ‘mortified and disgusted with the way Jeremy Kyle spoke to him on the show’.

Mr Dymond had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder in 1995 and had taken overdoses on four occasions – in January 1995, twice in December 2002 and in April 2005, the court was told.

It also heard he had attempted to harm himself in December 2002.

After his first application to attend the show was rejected because he had been diagnosed with depression and prescribed medication, Mr Dymond obtained a letter from his GP stating he had not taken the medication and his mood had improved.

He was subsequently assessed by mental health nurse Steph MacDonald employed by the show as suitable to appear as he had not ‘scored for depression’ in her evaluation of him.

Mr Kyle defended his handling of Mr Dymond during the recording, saying he had tried to ‘de-escalate’ the situation and added that the selection of guests and their aftercare ‘were not my responsibility, I was the presenter’.

The hearing continues.

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