Jeremy Kyle has been named as an “interested person” for the inquest into the death of his TV show guest Steve Dymond.
Hampshire coroner Jason Pegg has said the presenter “may have caused or contributed” to his death, during a pre-inquest review in Winchester.
Mr Dymond died of a morphine overdose and a heart problem, an earlier pre-inquest review heard.
The 63-year-old construction worker was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on May 9 last year, shortly after attending a recording of the axed ITV show.
He had gone on the programme to take part in a lie detector test to show he had not been cheating on his fiancee, Jane Callaghan, from Gosport, from whom he had recently split.
Afterwards, he had said he was worried about the repercussions of the show and the subsequent rumours, and Detective Sergeant Marcus Mills, of Hampshire Police, told a previous inquest hearing that the death was a suspected suicide.
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The Jeremy Kyle Show was axed amid growing scrutiny of the duty of care that reality TV shows have to participants following the death of Mr Dymond and former Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis.
A 29-page report published on Friday March 13 proposes the expansion of Section 7 of the Code, about Fairness and Privacy, and the creation of a “risk matrix” to help broadcasters assess what level of care participants might need.
More to follow
