Canadian man admits sending ‘suicide packets’ to hundreds of people around world | Canada

A Canadian man who sent “suicide packages” containing poison to more than 100 people in dozens of countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of assisting suicide.

Kenneth Law entered the defense in a packed courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario, on Friday after prosecutors agreed to drop 14 murder charges. The sentence is expected to be handed down in September.

Law, 60, pleaded guilty to charges of “assisting or counseling suicide”. He told Judge Michelle Fuerst that he understood the scope of his crimes and entered the plea voluntarily.

Family members became emotional as the court read each of the charges and Law confirmed his role in the deaths of 14 people aged 16 to 36 in the province of Ontario. He also admitted to sending lethal substances that killed 79 people in the UK.

The closely watched case has highlighted the difficulties of policing online forums that promote suicide and sell lethal substances. Bereaved families in England, where the law has been linked to scores of deaths, have renewed calls for a public inquiry.

The court was told Law sent suicide kits to people in 40 countries and territories but most were sent to people in the UK and US.

Law, who once worked as an engineer and cook at a Toronto hotel, operated a series of websites selling lethal chemicals to at-risk people around the world. To avoid detection, Law offered other products, including hot sauce, to give the illusion that he was operating as an industrial food wholesaler. Distinctive silver packaging warned that use of the product was the sole responsibility of the user. He also sold suicide paraphernalia and gave detailed instructions on how to use these items. Investigators say Law sent 1,209 packages to people in 41 countries before his websites were taken down.

Law has previously denied reports that he willingly sold products to help people kill themselves.

Prosecutors have submitted a statement of facts that exceeds 60 pages and is expected to take hours to be read in court. In most of the deaths, the victims were found by the parents.

In one particularly harrowing case, a young man was heard vomiting by his family and asked his parents for help after saying he had consumed a poisonous substance.

In another, a 29-year-old man called 911 and asked for medical help. The man, who said he had swallowed a poisonous substance, repeated “Please, I will die soon too” and then started to cry. When first responders arrived, he became unresponsive and had difficulty breathing and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A man in his 30s who was found in a rental car in Toronto donated money to first responders, anticipating the trauma they would experience when he found her body.

According to the transcript of the call, a victim called emergency services in the United Kingdom and told the operator that he had taken substances to kill himself, but that he did not want to die and was starting to panic. Paramedics arrived at the scene less than 30 minutes later and found him lying face down in his bed, phone in hand and still connected to emergency services. They failed to resurrect him.

Law firms’ packages were often found near victims.

At the time of his arrest, Law had received C$296,981 from Shopify and PayPal accounts linked to his four companies.

Outside court, family members of the two Canadian victims condemned the plea agreement.

“I feel very angry,” said Leonardo Bedoya, who was 18 when his daughter Jeshennia was killed. “After three years of waiting, this [plea deal] This is a disgrace; first of all because of this man’s failure to confront the victims…so painful.

“She was my only daughter, my light, my life… She made money from deaths all over the world.”

Addressing the Canadian government, he said: “Ministers, please shut down these platforms [which encourage suicide] and they are still open. “Close them to prevent further deaths and please continue to help the victims.”

Kim Prosser, whose 19-year-old son Ashtyn died in March 2023 just weeks before Law’s arrest, said the hearing was a “heavy” day. “It’s been three years. Three years of uncelebrated birthdays.”

She said she remembers her son as someone who was “always happy, always there for the little guy and gave people a voice when they couldn’t find their own.”

Prosser said he turned to the concept of restorative justice to help make sense of the tragedy. “I walk with him in my heart in everything I do. I carry his legacy forward in my heart, in my soul, and in the work I do.”

An investigation of Canadian websites by the UK’s National Crime Agency found that 286 people in the UK had received packages from Law, leading to the deaths of 112 people. The agreement between Canadian prosecutors and the UK’s National Crime Agency, announced on Friday, means Law’s role in the UK deaths will also be taken into account by the judge at sentencing.

Families in the UK have said years of impunity at Law and the failure of British authorities to prevent deaths linked to a pro-suicide online forum require a public inquiry. As of 2019 they said, 65 warnings It was given to three government departments by coroners. In October 2025, these families petitioned for a public inquiry, but were rejected in March. They now have less than a month to appeal the decision.

“The driving force that keeps grieving families going is the fact that other people are still losing loved ones,” said Adele Zeynep Walton, who lost her sister Aimee to poison. “Online forums linked to these deaths are still accessible. Unless something changes, more people will continue to lose someone.”

Although the case focuses on 14 confirmed deaths in Ontario, police in other parts of Canada and countries around the world have also investigated Law’s connection to deaths ruled suicides.

When prosecutors initially filed first-degree murder charges against Law, the scope of the allegations appeared poised to make this one of the largest murder cases in Ontario history. But an Ontario appeals court ruling in an unrelated case suggested that the mere supply of a substance used in suicide may not be enough to sustain a murder or attempted murder conviction. Prosecutors would likely need to prove that Law played a more active causal role in the deaths, potentially placing “undue strain” on the victims’ free will.

Canada’s supreme court later reversed the ruling, arguing that the distinction between murder and aiding suicide was not that strict. But it fell short of establishing a definitive rule for cases like Law’s, where the defendant allegedly supplied lethal substances to people who later took their own lives.

As a result, prosecutors downgraded the charges. Yet Canada’s criminal code punishes anyone who “advises or abets” a person’s death by suicide with up to 14 years in prison. Experts believe the scope of Law’s actions indicate he will receive a harsh sentence.

Victim impact statements and sentencing are expected in September.