Defence lawyer Matthew Gourlay stands beside Kenneth Law as the indictment is read in court in Newmarket, Ont., in May.Illustration by Pam Davies
09/23/26 17:09
British boy’s parents describe shattered lives
- Colin Freeze
The sombre first day of Kenneth Law’s sentencing hearing ended on Wednesday with details about a British boy who was among the early victims of the Canadian engineer’s online business.
Shortly before Wednesday’s proceeding wrapped at 4:30 p.m., the court heard from the British parents of a 14-year-old boy who died in 2021. Their written statement to the Canadian court described his suicide, which was caused by chemicals sold by Law, and how it “has irrevocably shattered our lives.”
The parents described in a written victim impact statement how a photo on their wall serves as a reminder that their son will remain a “beautiful young man.” But they can only wonder what he would look like had he lived to be 16, 18 or 21 years old.
The statement was read aloud in court by Canadian Crown attorney Brian McGuire.
The British family wrote that about they had struggled to find appropriate mental-health care for their teenager during the COVID-19 pandemic. They finally felt they had turned a corner when tragedy struck while the mother was out buying groceries for her son.
According to the agreed facts, on Oct. 27, 2021, the 14-year-old boy did not open his bedroom door when his mother returned. Hours later, at 9 p.m., she found an e-mail from him saying “Good-bye.” The e-mail had been sent using a delay timer before and he was found dead.
A publication ban prohibits the identification of victims who are minors in the case, including two 16-year-old Canadian victims.
Law’s sentencing hearing will continue Thursday.
09/23/26 15:47
Mother recalls ordinary moments with son
- Colin Freeze
Sarabjit Rana desperately wishes she could still say three words to her 21-year-old son: “Amrit, it’s ready.”
When she entered the witness box of a Newmarket court Wednesday, she told a story about cooking in her kitchen and trying to feed her young son, just out of his teens, as he constantly asked her about dinner.
“Mom, is the chicken and rice ready?” the mother from Peel region remembered him asking repeatedly. “Such an ordinary question. Such an ordinary moment.”
Today, Rana misses these moments. She says things have not felt ordinary in nearly four years.
According to agreed facts filed in the Kenneth Law case, Amritraj Rana consumed a chemical he bought from online vendor of poisons on Oct. 29, 2022.
The young man was overheard vomiting in his bathroom of his family home. He asked his mother to call an ambulance before falling unconscious in his father’s arms. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
His mother is one of several grieving parents who told the court Wednesday they continue to suffer, to the point they can no longer work as they once did.
“Since losing Amrit, I have been fired from two jobs,” she said. “There are days where my brain simply does not function in the way that it did before my Amrit died.”
09/23/26 12:57
Father says Law ‘robbed’ his son of his life
- Colin Freeze
Stephen Mitchell Sr. confronted Kenneth Law in court over the death of his 21-year-old son, who died after consuming poison purchased online from Law in March, 2023.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
A grieving Toronto father confronted Kenneth Law in the court, telling him that he “robbed” his son of his life and that “nothing can erase the consequence” of his actions.
When Stephen Mitchell Sr. took the witness box, he addressed Law directly. He told the 61-year-old engineer in the prisoner’s box that his online sales of lethal substances wrongly ended the lives of young people who were on the cusp of recovering from depression and mental-health conditions.
“You may one day regain your freedom, Mr. Law, but you will never erase the consequences of what you have done,” Mitchell Sr. said. “Mr. Law robbed my son of that chance to heal.”
The father described how his 21-year-old son Stephen Mitchell Jr. had suffered from depression when he paid US$87.17 via PayPal for a package of poison. He bought it from Law, and died after he consumed it in March, 2023.
Law was later arrested in May, and the Toronto case gave rise to one of the 14 counts of aiding suicide. Law has pleaded guilty to those charges.
Stephen Sr., a soft-spoken man, remembered his son as quiet, generous, courageous – and most of all, gentle.
“That’s all gone now,” he said. “But you, Mr. Law, are still here.”
09/23/26 12:28
Father haunted by daughter’s death
- Colin Freeze
Leonardo Bedoya, left, and Maria Lopez arrive at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ont., on Wednesday.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez’s family members were asylum seekers from Colombia who came to Canada 11 years ago to build a better life for their daughter.
Instead, Leonardo Bedoya found his daughter Jeshennia dead in the family’s home in Aurora four years ago. She had paid Law US$81.48 for a lethal packet of his toxic salt.
Today, the indelible image of finding his daughter on that day has overtaken memories of happier times, he told the court.
“How was I supposed to protect my daughter?” Bedoya wrote in his statement. “There are the dangers that you look out for, and the dangers that you don’t know exist.”
He described Law as a sinister presence lurking online who misdirected and misled many vulnerable young people like his daughter.
Law did not “guide them toward hope,” Bedoya said. Instead, he alleged that Law “paved a path toward death.”
09/23/26 11:55
Kenneth Law had told a psychiatrist he saw his actions as humane
- Colin Freeze
In court documents filed ahead of his sentencing hearings earlier this month, Kenneth Law had told a psychiatrist that he considers himself a “pathfinder” and not a psychopath.
“I was just trying to serve a need that I thought was humane,” Law said during interviews with psychiatrist Jonathan Rootenberg conducted in a Lindsay, Ont., jail this July.
“I’m not a diabolical madman.”
In the post-conviction medical interviews, the 60-year-old describes his upbringing and his crimes in his own words, while arguing that much of what he did was morally defensible even if it violated the law.
“Now I can look back and say that what I was doing was legally wrong ... that’s why I pled guilty. It’s about taking ownership and responsibility for your actions,” Law told the psychiatrist. “We all learn from our mistakes.”
09/23/26 10:30
Hearing begins with written statement from Maria Lopez
- Colin Freeze
Maria Lopez shows her family-made memorial shirt outside the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket on Wednesday.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Kenneth Law is in the prisoner’s box wearing a black jacket, with grown-out grey hair.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst is listening to the first victim impact statement, written by Maria Lopez, which is being read aloud by Crown attorneys.
Her 18-year-old daughter, Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez, was found dead in their family home in Aurora, Ont., on Sept. 10, 2022, after paying Law US$81.48 for a lethal packet of his toxic salt.
09/23/26 09:59
Sentencing hearing set to begin
- Colin Freeze
I’m Colin Freeze and I report on crime, justice and security issues for The Globe and Mail.
This morning I’m outside Courtroom 108 in Newmarket, north of Toronto, and bracing for the start of Kenneth Law’s sentencing hearing.
Crown attorney Peter Westgate has just told me that he anticipates the court will hear victim impact statements from a total of 74 people. I’m seeing British law enforcement officials arrive and introduce themselves to their Canadian counterparts. Parents of young people who took their lives are filtering in.
Seventy-four victim impact statements is a staggering number. It represents an impending outpouring of grief and loss on a scale unlike anything the Canadian criminal justice system has seen in recent memory. Many of these statements will come from parents of vulnerable teens and twentysomethings.
All this speaks to the global nature of Law’s crimes. In May, the 61-year-old former engineer from Mississauga pleaded guilty to aiding in the suicides of 14 people in Ontario. He also admitted to assisting in the deaths of 79 people in the U.K.
Westgate says that the statements will start with Ontario families. But he also anticipates two British witnesses will soon speak – including a person who is a “survivor.”
Until his arrest in 2023, Law operated a business selling repurposed industrial goods – toxic salts and other deadly paraphernalia – to people he met in online suicide forums. He admitted to shipping hundreds of packages to dozens of countries, selling his products for as little as US$80.
09/23/26 09:15
The stories of five victims, and their families’ grief
- Colin Freeze, Mike Hager
Five of Law's victims, clockwise from top left: Ethan Mitchell with photo of brother Stephen Jr.; Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez; David Parfett with photo of son Tom; Kim Prosser holds a photo of her late son Ashtyn Prosser-Blake; Imogen (Immy) Nunn.Supplied
The sentencing hearing is scheduled to run for several days as the families of victims from Canada and the U.K. provide victim-impact statements. But many have shared that no words can capture the losses of their family members.
Kenneth Law’s victims in Ontario included two 16-year-olds, a 21-year-old found dead by his brother and a 19-year-old honour-roll student, as well as dozens more in the U.K. whose deaths he has admitted a role in.
Here are five of their stories.
09/23/26 09:12
Why Kenneth Law won’t face charges in the U.K.
- Paul Waldie
Police walk past the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket this past May.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
In a letter sent to victims’ families in May, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said it would not be seeking extradition and instead handed its evidence over to Canada for the judge to consider during Law’s sentencing.
“After careful assessment, we agreed that Mr. Law should be sentenced for the full extent of his offending within a single sentencing process in Canada. This approach is not unusual in cases involving serious offending that crosses international borders,” said a letter sent to the families in May. The CPS added that while “this may be painful to hear,” the decision was reached after a detailed consideration of all options.
In a press release that week, Britain’s National Crime Agency said Law’s actions in that country will be taken into account in his sentencing in Canada. This “is an outcome that guarantees all victims and families in the U.K. will see justice,” the press release said.
09/23/26 09:10
Victims’ families will renew calls for public inquiries
- Colin Freeze, Mike Hager
Ethan Mitchell holds a photograph of his brother, Stephen Jr., outside the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket, in May.Christopher Drost/The Canadian Press
Some families are planning to use their victim impact statements to push for further scrutiny into how Kenneth Law’s operation continued for years.
Stephen Mitchell died in Toronto about a month before Kenneth Law was arrested. He was 21.
His father, Stephen Sr., said his son suffered from depression and stopped taking his medication. He paid US$87.17 via PayPal for a package of poison from Law and was found dead by his brother on March 25, 2023.
Mitchell said his son’s death was preventable and he plans to make that point when he gives his victim-impact statement.
“I do intend on calling for a formal inquiry,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
That anger is shared by the family of Imogen Nunn, who was 25 when she was found dead on New Year’s Day, 2023, after she purchased a poison packet from Law.
“I just think the government needs to just sit back and actually listen. Maybe they should be in their courtroom hearing about all our loved ones that we have lost,” her mother, Laurie Nunn, said in an interview from England. “The heartbreak, the pain that you know we’ve gone through and we’re still going through.
“It’s like .... it’s like we’ve just been left.”
Nunn said people need to pay attention the policy implications of the case, given how a Canadian online business escaped police scrutiny for years despite cultivating a global notoriety in selling suicide substances to young people who used them.
05/29/26 09:05
What to know about Kenneth Law’s guilty plea
- Colin Freeze
In May, Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in an Ontario court to aiding in the suicides of 14 people in Ontario, and also admitted to assisting in 79 other deaths in Britain by shipping toxic substances and suffocation equipment to people seeking to die.
Law operated an online business selling the products. He was charged in 2023 with the 14 deaths, including two minors. Each victim was named by the court.
Prior to pleading guilty to the 14 counts of aiding suicide, a grey-haired Law signed a lengthy agreed statement of facts, which was read aloud in court by prosecutors.
In the agreed facts, Law admits to shipping hundreds of packages of his products from a Canada Post office near his Mississauga home. Prosecutors named dozens of countries that received shipments but said most went to the United States (431 packages), Britain (330) and Canada (157).
06/18/26 09:00
A timeline of key events in the Kenneth Law case
- The Canadian Press
A photo of Kenneth Law is shown during a police press conference announcing his arrest in Mississauga, Ont., in 2023.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
Nearly four years since a coroner’s report on woman’s death in the U.K. listed details police later linked to Kenneth Law in Ontario, the marathon criminal proceedings in Canada are nearing a close.
But the path to Law’s guilty pleas for aiding 14 suicides in Canada – and his admission of involvement in dozens more abroad – has not been a straight line.
Here is a timeline of key events in the case up until June 18, and how we got to the Ontario court sentencing hearing starting today.