Jeremy Kyle arrives at Steve Dymond inquest as court sees clips of ex-guest
Jeremy Kyle will give evidence at an inquest in to the death of a man who died after appearing on his TV show as video clips are shown of the deceased’s polygraph test.
Steve Dymond, 63, is believed to have died of suicide seven days after filming for The Jeremy Kyle Show in May 2019.
The 63-year-old man had taken a lie-detector test for the programme after being accused of cheating on his partner, Jane Callaghan, from Gosport.
Winchester coroner’s court heard that Dymond died at his home from an overdose and left ventricular hypertrophy in his heart.
Dymond had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder in 1995 and he had taken overdoses on four occasions – in January 1995, twice in December 2002 and in April 2005 – the inquest heard. The court was told he had also attempted to harm himself in December 2002.
On Thursday, the court was shown video clips of Dymond being advised about the processes of the lie-detector test, with Chris Wissun, director of content compliance at ITV at the time, telling the hearing there was “an element of drama” to revealing the results of the lie-detector test.
In the video, Dymond asks the polygraph examiner, who was contracted by ITV to carry out the procedure, whether the test is “99.9 per cent accurate”, to which the examiner replies “they are 95 per cent accurate” with a “narrow risk of error”.
The examiner also advised Dymond that “if you fail one question, you fail the lot”.
The clips also show the 63-year-old watching a video informing him about the test which advises the participant to be “truthful, open and honest”.
Mr Wissun said: “This was a very well-established editorial feature of the programme. The result of the test would be given by the polygraph examiner to the producer.
“The show didn’t target unstable people, part of the process was only people who were able to take part and competent in mental health terms to take part should do so.
“The producer wouldn’t reveal the results to the presenter, the results would be given to him during the programme.
“He would open the envelope and reveal the results and tell the guests what the results were.
“There was an element of drama in that moment.”
Nick Sheldon KC, representing Kyle, asked Mr Wissun if he had seen any evidence that the presenter had been asked to “modify his approach or presenting style” when dealing with the former guest.
Mr Wissun replied, “No”, and also agreed with Mr Sheldon’s suggestion that Kyle was “very responsive to guidance of that sort”.
Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, told the inquest on Monday that on the day of filming, he received a call from his uncle, Leslie Dymond, to say his father was “very down”.
Woolley said he phoned his father, who told him that Kyle had “egged on” the audience to “boo him”.
The ITV executive said the former guest had been rejected on his first application to the show because he had disclosed that he had been diagnosed with depression and prescribed anti-depressants.
He said that a producer had created a draft headline for Dymond’s first application on 9 April which read “Missing Viagra and lies about being in the navy, are you a cheat?”.
Mr Wissun said that the subsequent letter from Dymond’s GP, requesting to support a second application, was a “very unusual circumstance”.
He said: “We were told that was very unusual, the fact that Dymond, having been turned down the first time, he reapplied to the show having gained a GP letter.
“We were told that was a very unusual circumstance, one of the aftercare team hadn’t seen a guest present a GP letter to try to support their taking part before.
“There was no established process on how to treat a GP letter, in Dymond’s case it was taken on face value.”
He added that Dymond had been given a one-to-one assessment despite the receipt of the GP’s letter.
The ITV executive said that the lie-detector test was not offered to anyone currently diagnosed with depression, and added: “The lie-detector test was a feature of the show which had been used by the show throughout its run.
“Quite a lot of potential guests applied to come on the show specifically to take a lie-detector as Dymond did.”
Mr Wissun said the show recognised “early on” the need to provide aftercare services which he said was expanded to provide support by the welfare team to guests “at all stages of recording”.
“It’s true the show sought people to take part who had an issue or a problem, that was the central purpose of the show to try and discuss and hopefully resolve the problems.”
Mr Wissun also told the inquest that the potential vulnerability of guests was “recognised by the fact that the show had its own bespoke aftercare team”.
“Not all programmes, in fact very few programmes, had its own team of medically-trained welfare people,” he added.
Mr Wissun said he was told the audience was not directed to be “hostile or derisory” towards guests.
He said: “We were told that the audience was not being deliberately directed to be hostile or derisory towards guests, they were there to watch what happened and watch what was said and their responses were a natural reaction of a group of people listening to the same story.
“In this particular episode I think at one point Jeremy does turn to the audience and asks for a straw poll of who believes Mr Dymond.”
Mr Wissun said he was told Kyle was “very receptive” to advice from the aftercare team about whether he needed to adapt or soften his presenting style for particular guests.
He said it was a “very important” part of guest welfare processes that guests were giving “informed consent” to take part and that they “understood the nature of the format and also the style of the presenter”.
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