Canadian Kenneth Law pleaded guilty on Friday in a Newmarket court (a suburb of Toronto) to having assisted in 14 suicides that occurred between May 2021 and April 2023. The people who took their own lives lived in the Canadian province of Ontario and were between 16 and 36 years old. Law provided them with a substance via the internet to commit the act.
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According to evidence presented by the prosecution, Kenneth Law sent packages containing sodium nitrite by mail, through an online service, a legal chemical compound used in the food industry as a preservative but potentially lethal in large doses. The shipments included instructions for its use for lethal purposes. Law had initially admitted to selling the substance but claimed he did not know what his clients were doing with it, thus maintaining that he had committed no crime.
Kenneth Law’s statement this Friday avoids the start of a trial against him for 14 first-degree murders. Law was arrested in May 2023 on two charges of incitement or assistance to suicide. As the investigation progressed, authorities filed 12 additional charges of this type, later adding charges for his possible responsibility in 14 premeditated murders. The start of the trial, which will ultimately not take place, had been delayed by various appeals filed by Law’s lawyers.
According to the Canadian Criminal Code, those guilty of incitement or assistance in a suicide can receive a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, while first-degree murder is automatically punished with life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole before serving 25 years behind bars. The hearing regarding sentencing is scheduled for September. Leonardo Bedoya, father of an 18-year-old woman who took her own life with the substance sold by Law, told CTV News: “He is a killer, a serial killer. He should be treated as such.”
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Kenneth Law, 60, studied industrial engineering at the University of Toronto and worked as a cook in a hotel. So far, the reasons why he decided to market what the Canadian press has called “deadly packages” have not been clarified. The case has made international headlines because the police estimate that Law sent about 1,200 packages; around 160 to Canadian addresses and the rest to more than 40 countries. British, Italian, Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. authorities have opened investigations. However, they have not yet filed charges against him. The substance was also shipped, among others, to locations in Germany, Brazil, China, France, Spain, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.
British forces indicated this Friday that they will not seek to convict Law for deaths that occurred on their territory. In a statement, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency reported that it forwarded to its Canadian counterparts the evidence collected after investigating the suicide of 112 people, where it is believed that 79 are related to the packages, so that Law receives a sentence in Canada “for the full extent of his crimes.”
Assisted death in Canada has been legal since June 2016 but is regulated under very strict criteria. This procedure is carried out only by healthcare personnel in adults suffering from serious and incurable diseases, including chronic conditions, that cause an advanced state of decline in their capacities and under free and informed consent. Kenneth Law’s actions have nothing to do with this regulation.
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