Get you up to speed: ‘Kenneth Law poisoned my son – I fear more young people will die’ | News UK
Kenneth Law, a Canadian man, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of aiding suicides in Canada and is facing sentencing hearings this week. His actions have been linked to 79 deaths in the UK, including that of 22-year-old Tom Parfett, who died in a hotel in Surrey after purchasing poison online from Law in October 2021.
Kenneth Law has been sentenced after admitting to aiding suicides but will not face charges related to British deaths, which will be addressed during the sentencing hearings that began today. Despite regulatory measures, the pro-suicide forum linked to Law’s activities remains accessible to UK users, raising ongoing concerns about its impact on vulnerable individuals.
David Parfett, father of Tom Parfett, has called for a public inquiry into online suicide forums, warning that “young people are still dying” and urging action to prevent further tragedies. Kenneth Law’s sentencing hearings commenced today, with victims’ families set to present impact statements as authorities prepare to weigh his potential prison term, with expectations that prosecutors may seek a sentence of 20 to 25 years.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how many additional deaths linked to the suicide forum have occurred since the investigation began.
Father of suicide victim warns of ongoing risks from poison sellers
Poison sellers will continue to take the lives of young people in the UK, the dad of a British victim has warned.
David Parfett’s son Tom was 22 when he died in a hotel in Surrey in October 2021 after buying a poison tablet online from Canadian Kenneth Law.
Law is due to be sentenced after he admitted 14 counts of aiding suicides in Canada after meeting people in online suicide forums, in a case also linked to 79 deaths in the UK.
He won’t face charges over any British deaths, but they will be considered in sentencing hearings, which began today, and the families of British victims will have their impact statements read in court.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
David, who played a crucial role in bringing Law to justice, told WTX: ‘Without Law, Tom would still be here and would have got through the problems he was facing.
‘Tom was bright, entertaining to be around and had a wicked sense of humour. It is incredibly sad to lose somebody like that to the world.
‘But we still have people who promote suicide methods online and there are still active UK users on these forums.
Tom, an ‘academically brilliant’ A-star student who had struggled with his mental health throughout his childhood, had just moved to St Andrews to study philosophy at university.
Battling isolation during the Covid pandemic and dealing with the anxiety to succeed academically, Tom began to suffer with suicidal thoughts.
Just by searching online, Tom was able to come across a pro-suicide forum that promoted a deadly substance that he used to take his life.
He bought the poison from Kenneth Law’s website for around £50.
After taking the tablet, commentators on the platform egged him on as he died.
David said: ‘I still can’t believe that Tom was able to go onto the internet and just put in a fairly standard search, and from that he was able to understand exactly what he needed to do to kill himself.’
It was only after David looked into his son’s death – and successfully ordered the poison himself – did he eventually discover that Kenneth Law was his son’s killer.
Authorities said Law, a former chef, sold about 1,200 packages of toxic substances to recipients he met in online suicide forums in 40 countries, with roughly a quarter sent to the UK.
The first impact statements are due to be heard in court today as the judge weighs Law’s prison sentence.
Each count of aiding suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, with experts predicting prosecutors could seek a 20-25 year sentence.
David’s main fear is that Law could reoffend when he leaves jail.
He said: ‘The man is callous. I fear what happens when he gets out.
‘There is very little that prevent him from doing something similar again and it would still be difficult to detect.’
Tom’s dad believes it was the ‘wrong decision’ for prosecutors to drop murder charges against Law, which would have carried a longer sentence.
‘Just because Law was not present when my son died, that does not mean he did not murder him,’ David continued.
While many impact statements will rightly be ’emotional and pretty aggressive towards Law,’ David said his is ‘pretty factual’.
His main concern is making sure that what happened to Tom and dozens others cannot happen again.
In August, WTX revealed that the suicide forum linked to Tom’s death was still easily accessible within seconds via a VPN in the UK, despite Ofcom saying it is blocked to UK users.
David says he still has an account on the site and that young people are still dying.
He warned: ‘I am a member of a group with the relatives of lost love ones and it has grown this year. There has been at least three new members since Ofcom began investigating the site.
‘There are other sellers like Kenneth Law who still continue to sell this stuff.’
Justice, for David, is not about Kenneth’s sentence but about ‘making sure there are no other deaths of vulnerable people like Tom’.
Earlier this month the bereaved families of young people whose deaths were linked to the suicide forum called on Andy Burnham to support their call for a public inquiry.
The site’s operator was fined £950,000 in May by online safety regulator Ofcom for failing to comply with duties under the Online Safety Act.
By July, Ofcom confirmed it could not pursue further legal action, adding that changes made by the US-based forum to block access to those in the UK represented “the fullest extent of what can be achieved” under the Act.