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TV host Jeremy Kyle told tragic guest Steve Dymond he “would not trust him with a chocolate button” and also asked for a shovel during filming, a coroner’s report has revealed.
Mr Dymond died seven days after failing a lie detector test while recording for The Jeremy Kyle Show in May 2019, leading to the long-running daytime series being axed by ITV.
Now, remarks made by Kyle during filming for the episode, which never aired, have emerged in a ruling by Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg.
The report also quotes Mr Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, who said his father “had been humiliated, taken for a mug and pounced on by the presenter”.
Mr Pegg said during a preliminary hearing on Friday that Kyle is an “interested person” in the inquest, due to take place in 2021, because “he may have caused or contributed” to Mr Dymond’s death.
The 63-year-old died of a morphine overdose and a heart problem at his home in Portsmouth, the hearing was told.
Mr Pegg states in his ruling, made in July: “I have had the opportunity to view The Jeremy Kyle Show episode featuring the deceased.
“In that footage it is apparent that Jeremy Kyle was aware that the deceased had previously been unable to appear on The Jeremy Kyle Show having been diagnosed with depression, for which the deceased had been prescribed anti-depressant medication.
“After the lie detector results the deceased looked visibly upset.
“Jeremy Kyle adopted an approach where he called the deceased a ‘serial liar’; that he ‘would not trust him with a chocolate button’; and made a comment: ‘Has anyone got a shovel?'”
Mr Dymond’s brother, Leslie Dymond, said his sibling phoned him from a taxi after the filming of the episode, the ruling reports, and told him he “could not go on living”.
“In subsequent conversations Leslie Dymond recalls his brother stating: ‘Jeremy Kyle had been in his face and followed when he left the stage… He was jeered and called a failure by the presenter.'”
Mr Pegg concludes: “I am satisfied that the evidence potentially goes beyond mere criticism of Jeremy Kyle and that acts or omissions of Jeremy Kyle may have caused or contributed to the death of Stephen Dymond, the deceased.
“Accordingly, I deem Jeremy Kyle to be an interested person in this case.”
Representing Mr Dymond’s family, Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC told the review hearing last week that Kyle had been given briefing notes about his guest’s situation and had made reference during the show to him stopping medication.
In a witness statement, Kyle said he “didn’t behave in a goading manner at all”, the hearing was told, which the family disputed.
Sky News has contacted Jeremy Kyle for comment.
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