Canadian man pleads guilty to selling lethal substances to people who killed themselves
NEWMARKET, Ontario (AP) — A Canadian man accused of selling lethal substances online to people who used them to end their own lives pleaded guilty Friday to 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide.
Wearing a dark blazer and a white shirt, Kenneth Law stood in the prisoner’s box of a Newmarket, Ontario court to enter his guilty pleas. Under the terms of the agreement, Canadian prosecutors will withdraw 14 murder charges against him. Sentencing is scheduled for September.
In the courtroom gallery, some family members of the victims dabbed their eyes with tissues as a prosecutor described the details of the suicides.
Police in Canada and around the world have been investigating more than 100 suicides linked to Law. The charges against him in the Canadian court are related to 14 people across Ontario who were between the ages of 16 and 36.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. The U.S. suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. In the U.K., the Samaritans can be reached at 116 123 or www.samaritans.org.
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Canadian police said Law, 60, used a series of websites to market and sell sodium nitrite, a substance commonly used to cure meats that can be deadly if ingested.
Law is suspected of sending at least 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries, with about 160 of those allegedly sent to addresses in Canada, police said. He has been in custody since his arrest at his Mississauga, Ontario, home in May 2023.
Prosecutors in the U.K. have decided not to charge Law or apply for his extradition despite investigating him over 112 deaths.
The Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency said they had decided that Law “should be sentenced for the full extent of his offending within a single sentencing process in Canada.”
In a letter to bereaved families, the organizations said it had been a “difficult decision.”
“No outcome in any court can remove the pain victims and their families have suffered,” they said.
The decision not to apply for Law's extradition comes in part because British authorities believe he would be able to challenge a U.K. prosecution under “double jeopardy” laws that prevent a suspect being tried twice for the same crime.
British prosecutors say 79 U.K. victims who died as a direct result of purchasing Law’s products will be taken into account by the Canadian judge when deciding on a sentence.
Damon Hayes of the National Crime Agency said that means “all victims and families in the U.K. will see justice” even though Law won’t be extradited to Britain to face charges.
David Parfett, whose 22-year-old son Thomas Parfett took his own life in 2022 after receiving a package from Law, said the British government is “failing in its duty to protect life.”
“I had wanted Law to face charges in the U.K. ... He really needed to face justice over here,” Parfett told the BBC.
Families of some of those who died called for a public inquiry.
“If our own country will not put anyone on trial for these deaths, the very least it can do is hold a proper inquiry into how they were allowed to happen,” said Adele Zeynep Walton, whose 21-year-old sister Aimee Walton died in 2022.
Authorities in the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand also have conducted investigations.
Those found guilty of aiding suicide in Canada can face up to 14 years in prison, while first-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A New Zealand coroner found that four people who died by suicide there had ordered items online from a business associated with Law, but noted that Law’s activities are outside the jurisdiction of New Zealand courts.
It is against Canadian law to recommend suicide, although assisted suicide has been legal since 2016 for people 18 and older. Any adult with a serious illness, disease or disability may seek help in dying, but they must ask for assistance from a physician.
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Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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