Canadian 'poison vendor' Kenneth Law faces sentencing after 14 suicide guilty pleas
Kenneth Law, a former chef from Canada, pleaded guilty to aiding 14 suicides after selling poison online to hundreds worldwide. Victim families delivered emotional impact statements in a Newmarket court.
Victim families recount grief as Canadian poison seller faces sentencing in Newmarket
Relatives of people who died by suicide after purchasing poison from a Canadian man delivered harrowing accounts of loss in a Newmarket courtroom on Wednesday, the Jamaica Observer reports, as a judge prepares to determine the former chef's prison term.
Kenneth Law, who is in his 60s, pleaded guilty in May to aiding the suicides of 14 people in Canada. Prosecutors had concluded they lacked sufficient evidence to pursue murder convictions, despite Law operating online forums where he advised users on methods to end their lives.
Law has admitted to actively seeking out customers, using a pseudonym on a suicide discussion forum, and making fatal substances available for purchase online.
"I cannot stop thinking that my little girl will never come back," said Maria Lopez, mother of Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez, who died in 2022 at age 18. Her statement was read aloud by prosecutors in court. The girl's father, Leonardo, added: "The future we had imagined as a family disappeared."
Dozens of families who lost loved ones to products sold by Law are expected to deliver statements over several days at the courthouse in Newmarket, near Toronto.
Law shipped poison to buyers in at least 41 countries, including China, France and Brazil. He sold 330 packages to customers in the United Kingdom alone, according to an agreed statement of facts signed by both the defence and prosecution.
Several families expressed anger that Law would not stand trial for murder, arguing he bore direct responsibility for the deaths of mostly young and vulnerable people.
Though murder charges were dropped, legal experts say prosecutors are still expected to seek a substantial prison term for the aiding-in-suicide convictions — possibly as long as 20 years.
"I'm no longer the same person I was before my brother died. Grief is now part of everything I do," said Adrienne Ryan, sister of Maurizio Vadala, her voice breaking as she addressed the court.
Stephen Mitchell spoke of losing his son, Stephen Jr, to suicide. "My son was a depressed, vulnerable, and sometimes immature youth. He was ill, and he needed help," Mitchell said. "Mr Law robbed my son of that chance to be healed."
Judge Michelle Fuerst has allocated four days to hear victim impact statements and additional evidence before proceeding to sentencing. It remains unclear when Fuerst will deliver her decision.
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper published details earlier this month from Law's psychiatric interviews, conducted in prison following his guilty plea. "I was just trying to serve a need that I thought was humane," Law told the psychiatrist, according to court documents obtained by the paper. "I'm not a diabolical madman," he reportedly added.
In those same documents, Law described viewing himself as blameless after his 2023 arrest, maintaining that he did not make the final decision to end anyone's life and was simply providing a product.
Law worked as a chef at a luxury hotel in downtown Toronto before launching his online suicide forums during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has admitted to shipping material containing lethal concentrations of the meat preservative sodium nitrite to buyers across Canada and internationally, typically priced at around $80 per package.
Leonardo Bedoya, speaking to reporters outside the court in May, said he found his daughter dead in her bedroom. He described prosecutors' decision to drop murder charges as "a disgrace." "She was my only daughter, my light, my life," Bedoya said.
Source: Jamaica Observer