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Kenneth Law pleads guilty to aiding fourteen suicides after selling poison online linked to one hundred forty-seven deaths worldwide
Kenneth Law, a former hotel cook from Ontario, pleaded guilty to aiding fourteen suicides by selling toxic salt packets online. A CBC investigation found his products have been linked to at least one hundred forty-seven deaths around the world.
Kenneth Law, a former hotel cook from Ontario, pleaded guilty to aiding fourteen suicides after selling packets of toxic salt along with masks and tubes online, knowing full well the buyers would use the products to end their lives. The guilty plea came three years after the families of victims first sought justice.
A CBC News investigation found that Law's products have been linked to at least one hundred forty-seven deaths around the world. Court heard that Law adopted an alias on a suicide forum, coaxing vulnerable users to end their lives with his products and even offering forty-minute phone consultations for a fee through his website.
Records showed that Shopify and PayPal transferred nearly three hundred thousand dollars to Law over a three-and-a-half-year span from his online sales. Prosecutors initially pursued fourteen counts of first-degree murder but these charges will now be withdrawn after Canada's Supreme Court recently declined to state whether a suicide can also be a homicide.
Standing next to his lawyer, Law showed no emotion as families in the packed courtroom wiped away tears. Multiple families expressed both relief at the guilty plea and frustration that murder charges could not be sustained under current Canadian law.
Law is scheduled to return to court in September when families will deliver victim impact statements. The judge has indicated he could face up to fourteen years in prison per count of aiding suicide. The case has raised urgent questions about the responsibility of technology platforms in preventing the sale of lethal products online.