TV KYLE ‘RIPPED INTO MY SUICIDE FATHER’
Son tells Mail of victim’s agony after show
The father found dead days after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show told relatives the presenter had ‘really laid into’ him.
In an emotional phone call following filming, Stephen Dymond said Kyle had ‘ripped into him’ on stage, according to his son Carl.
The 63-year- old was left distraught after failing a lie detector test over claims he had cheated on his fiancee. A week later he died in a suspected suicide. Mr Dymond’s landlady told the Mail he was deeply upset after appearing on the programme and also claimed Kyle ripped into him on set.
A furious row erupted over the ITV show yesterday, with MPs, psychiatrists and experts urging the broadcaster to scrap its
‘theatre of cruelty’ permanently. Downing Street intervened to say Mr Dymond’s case was ‘deeply disturbing’ and to demand that TV firms support their guests.
Producers at ITV now face urgent questions about why they allowed a father, who was suffering from depression and faced a warrant for his arrest, to appear on the programme.
As the future of The Jeremy Kyle Show, which has been on air since 2005 and is thought to bring in considerable advertising revenue, was thrown into doubt:
A string of participants came forward to tell of their treatment on the show;
Two others said they had been left suicidal after appearing on the programme, with one saying he had his character assassinated;
A former runner on the show has alleged that there was violence backstage, and producers aimed to create confrontation for the audience;
It was claimed that producers targeted people on social media with offers of free DNA tests and lie detectors;
Mr Dymond’s landlady said she had been told by a producer that he may have been unable to access support in the hours before his death as it was a bank holiday;
ITV’s chief executive sent staff an email claiming they pulled the plug on the show only to ‘protect it’ from public outcry;
Kyle refused to answer questions as he left the home of his fiancee’s parents.
In an interview with the Mail last night, Mr Dymond’s son Carl Woolley, 39, said his father had been left distraught after failing
‘He was distraught over the break-up’
a lie detector test during a recording of the hit ITV daytime show earlier this month.
That evening the pair, who had not spoken for seven years, reconnected via telephone after a relative – alarmed at Mr Dymond’s highly emotional state – contacted Mr Woolley and passed on his phone number.
But before the pair could meet for the first time in 36 years, Mr Dymond was discovered dead in the room he had been renting since separating from Jane Callaghan, who appeared on the television show beside him.
Mr Woolley, a health and safety adviser, said: ‘I called after he got home from filming the episode. He was distraught over the breakup of the relationship.
‘He had gone on the show solely to clear his name (about allegedly cheating on Miss Callaghan) but he said it had gone wrong because of the lie detector test.
‘He was adamant that he did not lie. He was so upset that he wasn’t making much sense, but he just kept repeating: “I haven’t cheated, Carl, I swear I haven’t cheated”.’
Mr Woolley, a father of three from Telford in Shropshire, said his father had disclosed Kyle himself had ‘really ripped in to him’.
Referring to his father by his first name, Mr Woolley added: ‘Steve told me “Kyle really laid into me”. Presumably that was at the point when they announced the lie detector result.’
Mr Woolley said a note addressed to him was found alongside Mr Dymond’s body in the Portsmouth flat where the building machinery operator had been lodging. He is believed to have taken an overdose.
He added: ‘ I’m satisfied Steve intended to kill himself. In the note, he apologised and asked me not to hate him for what he has done.’
ITV has suspended filming of the Kyle show and removed all past episodes from its catch-up website. But last night worldrenowned psychiatrist, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, led calls for the programme to be scrapped.
The president of the Royal Society of Medicine said: ‘It’s the theatre of cruelty. And yes, it might entertain a million people a day, but then again, so did Christians versus Lions. Plus, the idea that as the programme website says “Jeremy is here to help” is stretching the verb “to help” beyond any normal meaning of help, it’s almost an offence under the trades description act.’
Last night ITV said it had no further comment to make.
The Jeremy Kyle Show is one of the channel’s most lucrative programmes with viewing figures of almost one million per episode.