A Canadian man facing 14 murder charges for selling lethal substances online has agreed to plead guilty to counseling or aiding suicide. Prosecutors will drop the murder charges in exchange. The case returns to court in Newmarket, Ontario, on Monday.
Kenneth Law, a former chef from the Toronto area, will plead guilty to charges of aiding suicide, his lawyer Matthew Gourlay confirmed to The Associated Press. In return, Canadian prosecutors plan to withdraw the 14 murder charges against him. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation first reported the plea deal. Law has been in custody since police arrested him at his Mississauga home in May 2023. Canadian police allege that Law operated websites selling sodium nitrite, a meat-curing substance that can be lethal if ingested. They say he shipped at least 1,200 packages to buyers in more than 40 countries. Authorities in the United States, Britain, Italy, Australia and New Zealand have opened related investigations. Britain's National Crime Agency identified 232 UK buyers from Law's sites in the two years ending April 2023, with 88 of them having died. In Canada, the alleged victims were men and women aged 16 to 36. While assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since 2016 for adults 18 and older with serious illnesses—provided through physicians—it remains illegal to counsel or aid suicide otherwise. Abetting suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years under the Canadian Criminal Code, compared to life imprisonment for murder with no parole for 25 years.
