Jeremy Kyle guest said show’s makers ‘responsible for what happens now’

A guest on The Jeremy Kyle Show said the programme makers “are responsible for what happens now” in his final text message to his former partner, an inquest has heard.

Steve Dymond, from Portsmouth, is believed to have killed himself seven days after filming for the ITV show in May 2019.

He had taken a lie detector test for the programme after being accused of cheating on Jane Callaghan, from Gosport, who wiped her eyes with a tissue while giving evidence to the inquest on Tuesday.

Winchester Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Dymond died at his home of a combination of morphine overdose and left ventricular hypertrophy in his heart.

On May 6, 2019, Mr Dymond sent a WhatsApp to Ms Callaghan saying: “This will be the last time I say it, I was never, never ever unfaithful to you, in all the time we were together.

“I hope The Jeremy Kyle Show is so happy now, as to what they have done to me.

“I did lie about my past, but not about me being a cheat, I never ever did cheat on you.

“They are responsible for what happens now, I hope this makes good ratings for them, I bet they keep this quiet.

“Never did I cheat on you, never, never. My final words. I did try to explain to you, but you would not listen.”

Extracts from a note he left for Ms Callaghan were read out in court in which Mr Dymond said: “I pushed and pushed for the Jeremy Kyle Show to prove to Jane I never ever did (cheat on her). But it all went wrong.

“I failed because I lied about my past. Now I have lost you forever.”

Ms Callaghan said Jeremy Kyle was “a bit rude” to Mr Dymond when he appeared on the show.

Asked if she had any concerns over Mr Kyle’s behaviour, she told the inquest: “Jeremy was a bit rude to Steve… about ‘didn’t trust him with a chocolate button’ and this was before the results. So yeah, he didn’t know Steve, didn’t know nothing about him, so it was a bit horrible.”

The court heard that Mr Dymond asked to speak with Ms Callaghan immediately after the show while they were still at the studio.

“He was just saying, begging me, saying it was wrong, it’s not right, it’s not the truth, it’s wrong, it’s wrong,” Ms Callaghan said.

She added that the pair left the studio separately and that Mr Dymond later continued to protest his innocence. She said: “He just kept saying that it was wrong, the lie detector was wrong.

“He was speaking to his brother on his phone and he just kept saying ‘it’s all wrong, it’s all wrong’, and then he just left.

“I wasn’t communicating with him really. After that I just wanted him out of my life.”

She said she remembered Mr Kyle saying to her that effectively she was better off without Mr Dymond when questioned by Maya Sikand KC, representing Mr Dymond’s son and brother.

Ms Callaghan told the court that the pair met on a dating site in May 2017, broke up in February 2019, and then rekindled their relationship towards the end of March that year.

She said their plan from March 31 2019 was to get on The Jeremy Kyle Show so Mr Dymond could do a lie detector test and prove he had not cheated so that the couple could move forward with their relationship.

She told the inquest she initially believed the lie detector test was 100% reliable and accurate but later changed her mind.

Ms Callaghan agreed that she told a producer from The Jeremy Kyle Show that the presenter had been “great” the day after appearing on the ITV programme, the inquest heard.

Neil Sheldon KC, for Mr Kyle, suggested there was “not a single message” to her, from what Ms Callaghan could recall, in which Mr Dymond “complains about the way in which he was spoken to or treated by Mr Kyle”, and she agreed.

The inquest heard earlier on Tuesday that Mr Dymond told his son, Carl Woolley, that Mr Kyle had “egged on” the audience to “boo him”.

He 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 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”.

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.”

Coroner Jason Pegg told the hearing that the purpose of the inquest was not to “apportion civil or criminal liability” to any person involved.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

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