Did audience turn on him after he failed lie detector?
STeVen Dymond was said to have been left in tears and feeling suicidal after filming for the show with his onand-off girlfriend.
The 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.
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.
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.’
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 naive 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
‘I tried to calm him down’
because if there was, would he have killed himself within four days of 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.’
■ For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org