Steve Dymond put in taxi two hours after telling TV show researcher how upset he was

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

A guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show who is suspected to have killed himself was put into a taxi two hours after telling a researcher “I wish I was dead”, a coroner has heard.

Steve Dymond, 63, died about a week after taking a lie-detector test for the ITV daytime show. He was found in his rented room in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on 9 May after splitting from his on-off fiancee, Jane Callaghan. The show was recorded on 2 May but never aired and the series was subsequently axed.

At a pre-inquest review at Portsmouth coroner’s court on Monday, the assistant coroner Lincoln Brookes was told about some of the “broad themes” that Dymond’s family would be raising.

The family’s barrister, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, said Dymond was “exceptionally vulnerable” and had stopped taking prescribed anti-depressants in order to take the show’s polygraph test.

“After his cruel shaming he did not get the appropriate support from the aftercare team,” she said.

Gallagher said 72 hours elapsed between the suggestion of Dymond appearing on the show and the filming, which she said was a “very short” period. “For a decision so potentially life-changing, there is no equivalent. There is no cooling off. You are jumped on very quickly,” she said.

After the recording, Dymond was “put in a homeward-bound taxi within two hours of telling a researcher that he was really upset and that ‘life was nothing without Jane’ and said ‘I wish I was dead’, or words to that effect,” Gallagher said.

She claimed the family had seen no evidence that Dymond was given any welfare checks by any qualified mental health staff. “We presume this was left to a medically unqualified researcher,” Gallagher said.

The family have requested internal ITV notes on interviews with Jeremy Kyle, the assistant producer, a researcher and the aftercare and polygraph teams.

They have also asked for the unedited recording of the show, which ITV’s barrister Simon Antrobus agreed to provide. Antrobus told the inquest that an aftercare team saw Dymond.

At the opening of the inquest in May, DS Marcus Mills, of Hampshire police, said Dymond’s death was a suspected suicide.

The full inquest had been due to take place next month but Gallagher successfully argued it should be adjourned. She said the family had been declined legal aid and their legal team was the only one in the case without funding – an issue they would be challenging.

A further review hearing is due to take place on 21 November and the full inquest is scheduled to begin on 27 April and last four days.

Speaking after the hearing, Merry Varney, a solicitor with the law firm Leigh Day which is representing Dymond’s brother and cousin, said Kyle could potentially attend the inquest as a witness.

“It will depend on disclosure and will be a matter for the next hearing,” Varney said.