A Canadian man accused of selling lethal substances online to vulnerable people has agreed to plead guilty to aiding suicide, prompting prosecutors to drop 14 murder charges.
Kenneth Law, a former chef from Mississauga, Ontario, will enter the plea during a virtual court appearance scheduled for Monday afternoon in Newmarket, Ontario, his lawyer Matthew Gourlay confirmed to The Associated Press.
The plea deal means Law will avoid trial on allegations that he marketed and sold sodium nitrite — a food preservative that can be fatal if ingested — to individuals at risk of self-harm through multiple websites.
Canadian and international authorities say Law shipped at least 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia and Novel Zealand.
In the United Kingdom alone, the National Crime Agency identified 232 buyers of the substance sold through Law’s websites between 2021 and April 2023, 88 of whom later died.
Canadian victims ranged in age from 16 to 36 and included both males and females, according to police.
Law has remained in custody since his arrest in May 2023, following an investigation that traced online sales to his home.
While assisted suicide has been legal in Canada since 2016 for adults with serious medical conditions, the law prohibits anyone from advising or assisting suicide outside of physician-supervised procedures.
Under the Canadian Criminal Code, counselling or aiding suicide carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison, significantly less than the automatic life sentence without parole for 25 years that accompanies a murder conviction.
The court appearance on Monday will be procedural only, used to schedule future steps. neither the plea nor sentencing will occur at that time, Gourlay said.
Calls to Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General for comment were not immediately returned.
Why did prosecutors agree to drop the murder charges?
Prosecutors accepted the guilty plea to aiding suicide after determining that proving intent to kill — required for a murder conviction — would be difficult given the nature of the transactions and the victims’ own voluntary actions.
What happens next in the legal process?
Following the scheduling appearance, Law will formally enter his guilty plea at a later date, after which sentencing will be determined by the court based on the charge of counselling or aiding suicide.