A 62-year-old grandfather was found dead within days of being ‘humiliated and traumatised’ on The Jeremy Kyle Show when he failed a lie detector test on the programme, his landlady said last night.
Steven Dymond was said to have been left in tears and feeling suicidal after filming for the show with his on-and-off girlfriend.
The programme, which was due to air this week, was pulled from the TV schedules after the digger driver was found dead in his bedroom on Thursday last week following a suspected suicide.
In the days before his death Mr Dymond had reconnected with his estranged son, who told him he had become a grandfather, although he never got to see his son again or meet his grandchild.
Steven Dymond, 62, (pictured) was said to have been left in tears and feeling suicidal after filming for the show with his on-and-off girlfriend
The Jeremy Kyle Show was pulled off air by ITV on Monday and suspended indefinitely (file image)
In the days before his death Mr Dymond (pictured) had reconnected with his estranged son, who told him he had become a grandfather, although he never got to see his son again or meet his grandchild
Kyle is a father-of-four who became engaged to Vicky Burton, 37, his children's former nanny, in February 2018. They are pictured together at the Cheltenham Festival the following month
His landlady, who wishes to be known as Shelley, said he was ‘sobbing and distraught’ when he returned to her home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, after filming for The Jeremy Kyle Show on May 2.
She told the Daily Mail last night: ‘Four days later he was dead. I really believe it was the show that tipped him over the edge.’
Chris Lyons appeared on the show aged 17 with his mother Andi, when they were living on the Isle of Wight and he was abusing drugs and solvents.
The mother and son claimed they were baited by producers while waiting in separate rooms to go on air, with Andi blamed for Chris's drug issues because she had been through three marriages – even though his father had died.
Chris claimed he defended his mother on the show, but this was edited out – and he passed a drugs test, despite having taken cocaine two nights before.
Chris Lyons and his mother Andi who previously appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show
Kyle also offered Chris a job as a runner on the show, but he was told two weeks later that this would be voluntary with no expenses or accommodation.
Chris said at the time of his appearance: 'It ruined my life. All of a sudden, I wasn't Chris Lyons any more. I was just that guy off The Jeremy Kyle Show.'
However producers said they were 'incredibly proud' of the show helping people 'via a properly structured and resourced system of help and care'.
Douglas Naylor was the voice of hooliganism when he appeared on the show in his 30s in 2006, pitched against the parents of a Leeds fan who had been killed in Istanbul in 2000 - something he claims he was not warned about.
He said the show portrayed him as a hooligan going to Germany for the World Cup to cause trouble. When he eventually got there, he was deported.
Naylor, a Sheffield Wednesday fan, admitted that he would get involved in organised fights with gangs, but before he appeared on the show he was only known to police in Sheffield.
After appearing on the show, he was fired from his job as a tree surgeon. Naylor said: 'They wouldn't say they fired me for going on the show. But they fired me for one mistake, after a whole career in it.'
The TV appearance increased his notoriety, and he ended up in a fight with Sheffield United fans that saw him hit with a lump hammer. He arrived at hospital technically dead and had to be resuscitated twice.
The show gained notoriety in 2007 when security guard David Staniforth became the first person to be convicted of assault on a British talk show after head-butting his love rival, bus driver Larry Mahoney.
Staniforth was fined £300 and District Judge Alan Berg voiced his disapproval for the show at a court in Manchester.
He said at the time: 'It seems to me that the whole purpose of The Jeremy Kyle Show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people who are in some kind of turmoil.'
'It is for no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch this show which is a human form of bear baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment.'
The show was criticised by a judge in Manchester in September 2007 after security guard David Staniforth (left) headbutted bus driver Larry Mahoney during a row (right)
Shelley, a hospitality worker, 55, said Mr Dymond moved in with her and her son after breaking up with his girlfriend in February amid cheating allegations.
She said he was still in love with the woman – who he previously described on Facebook as his fiancee – and had been desperate to prove his faithfulness by taking a lie detector test on the show. But after Mr Dymond failed the test, he told Shelley that the studio audience had turned on him and he thought about suicide in the hours afterwards.
The mother-of-one, who did not attend the filming herself, said: ‘He was sobbing, he said, “it’s all gone wrong,” and said he had failed the lie detector. He was distraught and devastated. He was traumatised. Steve said it got quite nasty on the show.’
She added: ‘He told me that he had wanted to kill himself when he was being driven back to Portsmouth by a taxi that the show had booked. He said he thought about overdosing on his medication and throwing himself out of the moving car. He was just a mess and he was just humiliated.’
Mr Dymond told his landlady and her son that he had told some lies but was adamant he had not cheated on his partner.
Shelley said: ‘I tried to calm him down and sent him to bed with a hot drink.’
Over the next few days Mr Dymond was said to have been ‘obsessed with the lie detector test’ and started to spend more time in his room. When the family had not seen him for a few days they began to worry, but were initially reluctant to disturb him.
But on Thursday – after seeing that his car had not moved – the mother opened the door to his room and found him dead in his bed next to a number of handwritten letters.
She said he had been desperate to get back with his girlfriend and felt the show would give him the support he needed.
‘All he did was talk about her,’ she said. ‘Everything was about his girlfriend. He really admired and loved her to the core. He was like a lost puppy. He was desperate to prove himself.
‘When he first said he was going on the show, I jokingly said, “don’t be so stupid”.’ She added that Mr Dymond ‘naively’ thought he would get professional help.
‘He genuinely thought he was going to get some counselling and some therapy from the show. He said, “we will get all the care we need”,’ she said.
‘His words were, “They will help us and they have got the best teams in the country. They have got all the best counsellors”. He was naïve and really thought that.’
The family said they believe that Mr Dymond killed himself after they last spoke to him on Monday night. That was the last time Mr Dymond’s son was able to get hold of him. Shelley and her adult son described Mr Dymond as a ‘gentle giant’, adding: ‘He was a very quiet and charming.’
Shelley said she is ‘outraged and angered’ by how Mr Dymond was treated by ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show.
She said: ‘It’s disgusting. Jeremy Kyle is paid so much, and for what? To destroy people for entertainment?
‘How many people has the show emotionally destroyed? We don’t know how many people who may have killed themselves.
‘There is no proper after-care because if there was, would he have killed himself within four days off going on there? They could have prevented this. They should be held to account.’
The mother said the show’s directors rushed down to Portsmouth on Saturday after she reported his death. They didn’t come down when he needed them,’ she added. ‘The show tipped him over the edge. They humiliated him.’
The mother said she and her son now struggle with being inside their home since discovering Mr Dymond’s body. She said: ‘My home will never feel the same again. I cannot get it out of my head.’
ITV has wiped all episodes of the programme from its on-demand service the ITV Hub.
Episodes will not be airing on ITV2, although show's official YouTube account still has clips from the programme available to watch.
An ITV spokesman said: 'Everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends. ITV will not screen the episode in which they featured.
'Given the seriousness of this event, ITV has also decided to suspend both filming and broadcasting of The Jeremy Kyle Show with immediate effect in order to give it time to conduct a review of this episode of the show.'
The tabloid talk show sees host Kyle and
