At least a hundred victims and more than 1,200 packages were sent to around forty countries: Since the arrest in May of a Canadian who was selling “suicide kits” online, extensive investigations have begun on several continents.
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Kenneth Law, a 58-year-old chef at a Toronto hotel, is accused of selling a substance used as a food additive aimed at vulnerable people on multiple websites since late 2020.
He is charged in Canada with “assisted suicide,” a crime punishable by 14 years in prison.
In the country, 14 victims aged between 16 and 36 used Mr Law’s “kits” to end their lives. And that number is likely to rise, according to authorities, who have identified 160 packages sent.
According to British police, 88 of the 272 people who bought these products online died in the United Kingdom.
Taken in large quantities, the compound, sold pure by Kenneth Law, “can reduce oxygen levels, impede breathing and cause death,” Canadian police said.
However, the man, who has been jailed since his arrest in May, plans to plead not guilty, said his lawyer Matthew Gourlay.
“This is a unique case of its kind” which, in his opinion, involves “disturbing” allegations as his client is being prosecuted “for selling a legal substance on the market” which “until recently was sold on Amazon”. . “The alleged conduct falls outside the scope of this offense,” he told AFP.
Complexity of the investigation
Kenneth Law is a “businessman” who believes that selling such products is “a completely legitimate activity,” complains David Parfett to AFP, whose 22-year-old son committed suicide in October 2021 after buying one of these “ Kits” were around forty US dollars.
On the walls of his Victorian house on the outskirts of London hang many photos of Tom, a “lovely young man” who “loved football so much”. His loved ones were depressed and saw him fall during the pandemic.
The father-of-three now fears Mr Law will never “face justice over his son’s death” given the complexity of the investigation.
But Kim Prosser, whose son Ashtyn committed suicide in March, a month before his 20th birthday, hopes “he will be held accountable for his actions.”
“Ashtyn was not well, he had emotional problems” and “the hardest thing today is asking for help,” says this Canadian. The mother is now trying to found an association in honor of her son to support people in psychological distress.
Websites like Kenneth Law’s exist because the health system “doesn’t work,” she denounces, especially for people with mental disorders.
Poison
It was an investigation by the British daily newspaper The Times that made it possible to establish the connection between numerous suicides and their websites in April. Interviewed by the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail shortly before his arrest, the Canadian stated: “I am selling a legal product. What does the person do with it? I have no control.
Since then, several other countries alerted by Interpol have launched investigations, including New Zealand and Italy, where nine buyers were identified and one victim died in Trent in the north of the country. Australian authorities have also reportedly begun investigating.
France, for its part, reports about thirty buyers but has “not opened an investigation” since “the use of this type of product does not constitute a crime,” a police source familiar with the case told AFP.
The same observation in Ireland, where a “low number” of deaths have been recorded but no criminal investigations have been launched.
David Parfett tried to understand how his son “could have gotten this poison” and ended up on an online suicide forum.
There he discovered a place where people were “encouraging people to commit suicide” and directing them to dealers like Kenneth Law through encrypted messages. “Without this forum, Tom would still be with us today.”