A Canadian man accused of shipping poison to people contemplating suicide around the globe is expected to plead guilty to several counts on Friday, ending a case that has shocked the public.
While Kenneth Law is set to admit to 14 charges of aiding or counseling suicide, Canadian prosecutors are withdrawing second degree murder charges, multiple sources have confirmed, causing anger among devastated families. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported the plea.
Law, 60, is a former chef accused of running a number of online forums that offered predominantly young, distressed people advice on how to end their lives.
He allegedly shipped parcels to hundreds of people in dozens of countries containing sodium nitrite, a legally available preservative that can be fatal in certain concentrations. In 2023, Canadian police released photos of the sodium nitrite, adding that a joint operation led by 11 police agencies from across Ontario were investigating the case.
“Investigators are asking members of the community to be alert of any packaging or label identifying sodium nitrite,” Constable Sarah Patten said at the time.
Britain’s National Crime Agency said it has identified 232 people in the U.K. who bought products from the websites in the two years up until April 2023. Of those purchasers, 88 had died.
Kim Prosser’s son Ashtyn took his own life in March 2023, weeks before Law’s arrest. It is one of the 14 Canadian deaths at issue in the case being heard in Newmarket, just north of Toronto.
Prosser told AFP prosecutors had informed her that Law will plead guilty to counseling suicide, with the murder charges dropped, information also shared with Canadian media by Law’s defense lawyer Matthew Gourlay.
The office of Ontario’s attorney general told AFP Law will appear in person on Friday “to take a plea.”
Prosser, who said she will attend the hearing, spoke of the excruciatingly painful three years since her son’s death on March 30, 2023.
She said she received his ashes that April 13, her birthday, just two weeks before what would have been Ashtyn’s 20th birthday.
“To be at the courthouse on Friday and to sit there… it’s a beginning to another chapter of this process of healing,” she said.
Prosser, who now works in holistic coaching and wellness, told AFP she understands other families are furious Law will not be held culpable for murder, but said she does not share that emotion.
David Parfett’s son Thomas was 22 when he ended his own life in 2021 with materials allegedly supplied by Law.
Thomas’s death is not part of the ongoing Canadian case, but is one of nearly 100 British suicides reportedly linked to Law’s online forums.
Since Thomas’s death, David Parfett has become an advocate for change, urging more rigorous legislation to confront online spaces that guide people toward harm.
He noted that while he is not a lawyer, he believes Canadian authorities were missing an opportunity to establish the gravity of Law’s conduct.
“This was a man who was more than urging and assisting suicide,” Parfett told AFP.
“If (Law) hadn’t been offering detailed instructions about how to take your own life, then the chances are my son would still be here. So again, for me, it’s murder,” Parfett said.
Leonardo Bedoya — whose 18-year-old daughter Jeshennia Bedoya Lopez died in 2022, allegedly with Law’s help — told Canada’s CTV he was furious with the plea deal.
“He’s an assassin. A serial killer. They should treat him like a murderer,” Bedoya told the network.
Dalhousie University law professor Robert Currie told AFP prosecutors seeking to try Law for murder were handcuffed by a legal “gap.”
Under Canadian law, it is not clear if “murder is a separate crime from counseling suicide, or whether the same conduct can make up both of those crimes,” he said.
Prosecutors had hoped a Supreme Court decision in a separate case would resolve the uncertainty, but Canada’s top judges “declined to clarify” the issue, Currie added.
Because Law’s prosecutors doubted they could secure murder convictions, they’re “going with the bird in hand,” Currie said, stressing that counseling suicide is a serious offense.
Experts suggest Law is likely to be jailed for 10 to 20 years in Canada, depending on whether he receives concurrent or consecutive sentences, at a subsequent hearing.
“Given the heinous nature of this crime, I would be surprised if he didn’t get something fairly stiff,” Currie told AFP, noting Law could face further justice elsewhere, with extradition to the UK a plausible future step.
Every year, about 4,500 people in Canada die by suicide and every day, more than 200 people in Canada attempt suicide, according to government statistics.
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
