‘Very upset’ Jeremy Kyle Show guest called son six times a day after failing lie test

Steve Dymond’s son has agreed that he told his father’s ex-fiancee “to get as far away from Steve as she could and that he was no good for her”.

Mr Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, was the first witness to give evidence on the first day of his father’s inquest on Tuesday.

Speaking of Mr Dymond’s ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan, Neil Sheldon KC, representing Jeremy Kyle, asked Mr Woolley, “You told her to get as far away from Steve as she could and that he was no good for her?”

Mr Woolley agreed that he had told Ms Callaghan this.

It came after Mr Dymond had taken a lie detector test for The Jeremy Kyle Show after being accused of cheating on Ms Callaghan.

Mr Woolley said he was “angry and upset”, after having had little contact with his father over the years and then reconnecting but over this situation.

Mr Sheldon also asked: “The reason your father gives for his distress is for what happened with Jane?”

Mr Woolley agreed but added that his father was also upset over “what happened on the show”.

Steve Dymond felt he was “thrown under a bus” on The Jeremy Kyle Show, according to his son’s witness statement.

The inquest heard extracts from Carl Woolley’s witness statement in which he described how his father felt after appearing on the show.

“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,” Mr Woolley said in his statement.

“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 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”.

Carl Woolley said his father had continued to be “very upset” in the following days and would call him up to six times a day.

He told the inquest: “He was OK at some points but very down.”

He added that he tried to encourage his father 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 that the last time his father tried to make contact was a missed call on his phone.

The inquest heard extracts from a note which Steve Dymond left for his son, Carl Woolley.

Counsel to the inquest Rachel Spearing said: “In the bottom paragraph he says sorry to you, he asks you not to be mad with him and he knows that you will be but he doesn’t know what to say to you.

“He knows sorry isn’t enough and he says that: ‘I just don’t want to have to be here no more. My life feels empty without Jane. I just loved her so much’.”

Mr Dymond had taken a lie detector test for The Jeremy Kyle Show after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan, from Gosport.

Ms Spearing continued: “He expresses pride in you and comments upon your skills as a dad.

“He says: ‘I never ever cheated on Jane and that is what is tearing me to pieces and everyone thinks I am but I’m not a cheat. But I did tell her lies and I lied so much to Jane and that is why she didn’t believe me’.”

Steve Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, told the inquest his father had been “very upset” after the recording of The Jeremy Kyle Show.

He said they had not been in recent contact before his uncle Leslie Dymond rang 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 father 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 father “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.”

The inquest heard a “pen portrait” of Steve Dymond written by his brother, Leslie Dymond, in which he described him as a “brave” man.

In the pen portrait, read aloud by counsel at the coroner’s court, Leslie told of how his brother joined the RNLI when he was young.

“Stephen was dedicated to the RNLI. He would never miss training,” he said.

Leslie described how his brother did “many gruelling tasks” for the institution to rescue people when they got into trouble at sea.

“It was not an easy job… but Stephen showed up every single time,” he said.

“He was so dedicated to his role.”

Leslie said there were times when his brother would be delayed returning to shore from a rescue because the sea was too rough.

“It was a dangerous job. They were very brave men and Stephen was one of them.”

Rachel Spearing, counsel to the inquest, told the hearing a post-mortem examination found a “potentially fatal level” of morphine in Steve Dymond’s blood.

It also found evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy in his heart.

Ms Spearing said: “The conclusion was that both left ventricular hypertrophy and morphine levels are independently capable of causing Mr Dymond’s death but in this case a combination of the two factors had led to his death.”

Rachel Spearing, counsel to the inquest, told the court the proceedings will look into the events between 14 March and 9 May 2019 leading up to Steve Dymond’s death.

The inquest will hear evidence in relation to Mr Dymond’s interactions with his GP, assessment of his participation on The Jeremy Kyle Show and the aftercare provided after the programme, she said.

She added that the inquest will hear about Mr Dymond’s “reaction to the lie detector test”, which he took on the ITV show.

The inquest of Steve Dymond, a guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show, has heard he died of an overdose of morphine and a heart problem.

Resuming the hearing at Winchester Coroner’s Court, coroner Jason Pegg said the 63-year-old was found dead at his home in Grafton Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire, on May 9 2019.

Mr Pegg told the hearing: “At the heart of this inquest is the family of Steve Dymond.”

He added that the purpose of the hearing was not to “apportion civil or criminal liability” to any person involved.