UPDATE
May 29, 2026 12:45 PM CDT
A Canadian man pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of assisting suicide and avoided murder charges in the process, reports the Guardian. Kenneth Law sold lethal doses of a chemical worldwide as part of what prosecutors described as suicide packets. The 60-year-old will be sentenced in September.
May 27, 2026 11:00 AM CDT
Families who lost children are bracing for a guilty plea they say doesn't go nearly far enough. Canadian authorities expect former chef Kenneth Law, 60, to admit Friday to 14 counts of aiding or counseling suicide in connection with deaths across Canada, but prosecutors are dropping second-degree murder charges, according to reporting from CBS News and the CBC. Law is accused of running websites that guided mostly young, distressed people on how to die and mailing them sodium nitrite, a legal preservative that can be lethal in high doses. UK officials say 232 people there bought products from his sites; 88 later died.
Some relatives of the dead call the deal a miscarriage of justice. "For me, it's murder," Briton David Parfett, whose 22-year-old son died in 2021 after allegedly using Law's materials, tells AFP. Others, like Canadian mother Kim Prosser—whose 19-year-old son died weeks before Law's 2023 arrest—say the plea is at least a step toward closure. A Canadian law professor says prosecutors faced a legal gray area over whether the same conduct could support both murder and counseling-suicide charges, and opted for convictions they believe they can secure. Law is expected to face a sentence in the 10- to 20-year range and could later be extradited to the UK. (If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
