UK Man Admits Selling Toxic Chemicals Online Used in Suicides Worldwide

On May 29, 2026, Kenneth Law stood in a Newmarket, Ontario courtroom and pleaded guilty to 14 counts of counselling or aiding suicide [1]. The 60-year-old former chef had, over a period of roughly 20 months, operated a series of websites that sold sodium nitrite — an industrial meat-curing agent that is lethal when ingested in concentrated quantities — to people who wanted to die [2]. His customers were spread across more than 40 countries. At least 150 of them are now dead [3].

The guilty plea brought partial closure to a case that has exposed failures across multiple jurisdictions — in policing, platform regulation, and the law itself. But for the families of 112 British victims linked to Law's products, the outcome is bittersweet: due to double jeopardy protections, Law will never stand trial in the United Kingdom [4].

The Scale of the Operation

Law began operating websites in late 2020, eventually running at least five domains, including sites named "Imtime Cuisine" and "Escape Mode" [5]. The storefronts were designed to look innocuous. One featured a background image of cold meats and a cheese board. But sodium nitrite was, in practice, the only product consistently in stock [6]. Alongside the chemical itself, Law sold related paraphernalia — items that, together with the substance, constituted what prosecutors and media described as "suicide kits."

The substance was priced at approximately $80 USD (roughly $110 CAD) per package [7]. Between September 2021 and May 2023, Law shipped at least 1,200 packages worldwide: 330 to addresses in the United Kingdom, 431 to the United States, and approximately 160 within Canada [4][6]. The remainder went to dozens of other countries. Investigators in Italy, Australia, and New Zealand also opened cases [3].

Financial records presented in court showed that over $148,000 was transferred to Law's accounts via Shopify's payment system, with a comparable sum processed through PayPal [7]. The operation was, from the outset, a commercial enterprise.

Source: CPS, NCA, CBC News

Data as of May 29, 2026CSV

The Victims

The 14 Canadian deaths to which Law pleaded guilty involved people between the ages of 16 and 36 — including two minors [1][2]. A 60-page agreed statement of facts, read in court by prosecutors, detailed the final days of each victim.

In the United Kingdom, the National Crime Agency (NCA) determined that 286 individuals had received packages, and 112 had died [4]. Of those, 79 deaths were directly attributable to products supplied by Law, according to the CPS [8]. The NCA described the investigation as "unprecedented in both scale and complexity," requiring coordination with every police force in England and Wales [8].

Some cases illustrated how the existing mental health system had failed to intervene. One victim had first attempted suicide in March 2020 and spent approximately a year under psychiatric care. In August 2022, this individual attended a hospital emergency department reporting depression, anxiety, and self-harm ideation — and subsequently contacted Law to purchase a kit [9]. Lee Cooper, brother of 41-year-old Gary Cooper of Liverpool who died in July 2022, told reporters: "He was getting help... unfortunately he found a forum before he could get better, so he didn't get a chance to heal" [7].

Why the UK Cannot Prosecute

Under Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961, it is a criminal offence in England and Wales to encourage or assist the suicide of another person, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years' imprisonment [10]. Amendments to the Act explicitly extend its scope to acts committed via websites [10]. On paper, UK law covered Law's conduct.

The obstacle is jurisdictional. The CPS and NCA jointly concluded that by the time any extradition request could realistically be filed, Law would already have been sentenced in Canada for the same conduct [8]. Under double jeopardy principles — recognized in both Canadian and UK law — a person cannot be tried twice for the same offence. British prosecutors determined that pursuing extradition carried "a significant and unacceptable risk" of failure [4][8].

The CPS framed its decision as pragmatic: without the Canadian proceedings, "no UK victims would have been recognised or seen justice done in any criminal process" [8]. The NCA's evidence — documenting 79 attributable UK deaths — will instead be submitted to the Ontario court as aggravating material at sentencing [8].

Families Demand Answers

The decision has enraged British families. Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Aimee died in 2022 after purchasing one of Law's kits, said: "It's absolutely insane that the NCA and CPS are not going to do anything about it. It is so insulting" [4]. David Parfett, father of 22-year-old Thomas Parfett, has called for a public inquiry: "If our own country will not put anyone on trial for these deaths, the very least it can do is hold a proper inquiry into how they were allowed to happen" [4].

Families will have the opportunity to submit victim impact statements to the Canadian court and attend sentencing hearings remotely [8]. Sentencing is scheduled for September 2026 [1].

The Sentence Law Faces

In Canada, counselling or aiding suicide carries a maximum penalty of 14 years per count under the Criminal Code [2]. The original indictment included 14 counts of first-degree murder — which carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years — but prosecutors withdrew those charges in April 2026 as part of the plea agreement [1][6].

The decision to drop murder charges was itself controversial. At least one Canadian family has publicly expressed fury at the downgrade [4]. Prosecutors have not disclosed the specific legal reasoning in detail, though reporting indicates the shift followed developments in Canadian Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding the distinction between aiding suicide and murder [6].

Justice Michelle Fuerst will preside over sentencing. UK authorities have urged the judge to treat the international scope of harm as an aggravating factor [8].

Platform Accountability

Law's websites were hosted on Shopify, and payments were processed through both Shopify Payments and PayPal [7]. Neither company has issued detailed public statements about how Law's storefronts operated for nearly two years without triggering automated or manual review, despite Shopify's stated policies against prohibited items [11].

The question of platform liability remains unresolved. Under the UK's Online Safety Act 2023, platforms have a duty of care to prevent users from encountering content that facilitates suicide or self-harm. However, the Act's enforcement mechanisms are still maturing, and Law's sites were hosted outside UK jurisdiction. Within the EU, the Digital Services Act imposes similar obligations but likewise faces challenges with extraterritorial enforcement.

No civil litigation against Shopify or PayPal in connection with the case has been publicly reported.

A Parallel UK Case: Miles Cross

Law's prosecution is not the only recent case of online chemical sales linked to suicides in the UK. In January 2026, Miles Cross, 33, of Wrexham, North Wales, was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment at Mold Crown Court after pleading guilty to four counts of encouraging or assisting suicide [12].

Cross had joined an internet discussion forum in July 2024 and, operating under a pseudonym, posted photographs of a lethal chemical alongside a QR code linked to his bank account [12]. He charged £100 per package and sold to four people, two of whom died [12]. Police discovered quantities of the substance and paraphernalia when they searched his address in January 2025 [12].

The Cross case demonstrated that UK law is capable of securing convictions for domestic offenders. But it also highlighted the gap: when the seller is abroad, enforcement depends on international cooperation and extradition frameworks that may not function quickly enough.

The Means Restriction Debate

A central question in assessing the impact of Law's operation is counterfactual: would these individuals have died by other means regardless?

Research on lethal means restriction — the strategy of reducing access to commonly used methods of suicide — suggests the answer is, in many cases, no. A synthesis published in The Lancet found that restricting access to highly lethal methods has been associated with declines in suicide rates of 30–50% in countries where such measures have been implemented [13]. The evidence indicates that while some individuals do seek alternative methods (a phenomenon known as "means substitution"), the substitute methods are typically less lethal and result in fewer completed suicides [13][14].

Physical barriers at known jumping sites, bans on highly hazardous pesticides, and restrictions on domestic gas toxicity have all produced measurable reductions in suicide deaths without full substitution [14]. The research is not unanimous — means substitution is more common among men and varies by region — but the weight of evidence supports the conclusion that accessibility of a specific lethal method materially influences completed suicide rates [13].

Applied to this case, the implication is that at least some proportion of Law's customers would likely not have died had sodium nitrite not been readily available for purchase online.

Source: OpenAlex

Data as of Jan 1, 2026CSV

Comparative Legal Frameworks

The Law and Cross cases sit within a patchwork of national laws on assisted suicide and the sale of lethal substances.

United Kingdom: Under the Suicide Act 1961 (as amended), assisting or encouraging suicide is punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. The CPS publishes specific guidance for prosecutors on when to bring charges, emphasizing factors such as whether the suspect was motivated by compassion or by financial gain [10].

Canada: Counselling or aiding suicide is punishable by up to 14 years under the Criminal Code. Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program permits physician-assisted death for eligible patients, but Law's activities fell entirely outside this regulated framework [2].

United States: Forty states criminalize assisted suicide; twelve jurisdictions permit medical aid in dying under tightly regulated conditions. The US Supreme Court ruled in Washington v. Glucksberg (1997) that assisted suicide is not a constitutionally protected right [15]. The FBI referred aspects of the Law investigation to Canadian authorities [7].

Australia: All states and the Australian Capital Territory now have voluntary assisted dying schemes, but assisting suicide outside these regulated frameworks remains a criminal offence — classified as murder or manslaughter in some jurisdictions [15].

European Union: Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands permit physician-administered euthanasia. Germany, Italy, and Austria allow assisted suicide under specific conditions. Switzerland permits assisted suicide unless the assisting party acts from self-serving motives [15]. No EU member state permits the unregulated online sale of lethal substances for the purpose of self-harm.

Global Suicide Rates in Context

The UK's suicide rate stands at 8.8 per 100,000 population, according to the most recent WHO data — lower than rates in South Korea (20.6), Japan (14.7), or the United States (14.2), but still representing thousands of deaths annually [16].

Source: WHO Global Health Observatory

Data as of Dec 31, 2021CSV

The Right-to-Die Tension

Prosecuting sellers of lethal substances raises a question that right-to-die advocates and legal scholars have flagged: does criminalizing the supply of such materials risk sweeping in legitimate harm-reduction information, or chilling palliative care discussions?

The strongest version of this argument holds that individuals have a right to bodily autonomy, including end-of-life decisions, and that prosecuting intermediaries could push vulnerable people toward more violent and less reliable methods. Organizations such as Dignity in Dying in the UK have long advocated for legislative reform to permit assisted dying under medical supervision [15].

However, advocates for assisted dying legislation have generally not defended Law's conduct. The critical distinction, as framed by both legal scholars and organizations on all sides, is between a regulated medical process with safeguards — eligibility criteria, waiting periods, psychiatric evaluation — and an unregulated commercial operation selling lethal chemicals to anyone who could pay, including minors, with no assessment of capacity, no medical oversight, and no possibility of reversal.

Law's operation bore no resemblance to the frameworks that right-to-die advocates propose. His youngest known victims were 16 years old [1]. There is no evidence that he screened buyers, offered counselling, or provided any safeguard. His defence — that he had "no control" over what customers did with his products — was rejected by the court [11].

What Comes Next

Kenneth Law's sentencing is expected in September 2026. UK families are pressing for a public inquiry into how the operation went undetected for as long as it did — and why no British prosecution will follow [4].

The case has renewed calls for tighter regulation of online chemical sales, for platform accountability when storefronts are used to sell lethal substances, and for better coordination between national law enforcement agencies when cross-border crimes target vulnerable people.

It has also raised questions about whether the mental health system caught enough of these individuals before they reached a seller. The documented cases show that at least some victims had prior contact with psychiatric services and emergency departments [9]. Whether those contacts represented failures of the clinical system, or whether the accessibility of a "turnkey" suicide method overwhelmed supports that might otherwise have been sufficient, remains an open and painful question.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please contact the Samaritans (UK) at 116 123, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (US) at 988, or Crisis Services Canada at 1-833-456-4566.