A Canadian former chef accused of selling at least 1,200 suicide kits packed with poisons tied to the deaths of 117 people is set to avoid murder charges after prosecutors opted to change tactics over a legal technicality.
Kenneth Law, 60, was facing 14 counts of second-degree murder for helping more than a dozen young people, including teenagers, in the province of Ontario kill themselves.
Law, however, is now set to admit to 14 charges of aiding or counseling suicide after prosecutors withdrew the murder charges, sparking outrage from the families of the dead.
Grieving father Leonardo Bedoya — whose daughter Jeshennia Bedoya Lopez, 18, died in 2022 with Law’s alleged help — told Canada’s CTV that it’s wrong for prosecutors to treat Law as anything but a murderer.
“He’s an assassin. A serial killer,” Bedoya told the outlet. “They should treat him like a murderer.”
Kim Prosser, whose 19-year-old son Ashytn’s death is among the 14 charges Law faces, said the prosecution’s decision was yet another blow to her in the three years since her son’s death.
“To be at the courthouse on Friday and to sit there… it’s a beginning to another chapter of this process of healing,” she told the AFP of the proceedings.
Law is believed to have sold his assisted-suicide parcels, packed with sodium nitrite, to more than 40 countries between 2020 and 2023, with the bulk of the deaths identified in the UK, British authorities said.
At least 232 people in the UK bought Law’s kit, and of those buyers, 88 had died, according to Britain’s National Crime Agency.
One of Law’s alleged British victims was 22-year-old Tom Parfett, of Sunbury-on-Thames, who ended his life in October 2021 using a chemical he bought for about $60 on Law’s website, according to his father, David Parfett.
David maintains that Law was not a passive tool for his son’s death, claiming the former chef played a clear and active role in the suicides.
“If (Law) hadn’t been offering detailed instructions about how to take your own life, then the chances are my son would still be here,” he told the AFP. “So again, for me, it’s murder.”
The prosecution’s decision to drop the murder charges came after Canada’s Supreme Court opted to decline to clarify the difference between murder and counseling suicide in a separate case.
The top court’s decision would have served as a hurdle for the prosecution, with the lesser charges more likely to stick than the murder charge.
Law is expected to face between 10 to 20 years in prison for the 14 charges of counseling suicide.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling.
If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
