The grieving father of a Scottish university student has described how he turned detective to unmask the online poison peddler who led his son to take his own life.
Tom Parfett was studying philosophy at St Andrews University when he joined a pro-suicide forum and was sent a package from Kenneth Law, a Canadian cook who sold lethal substances to victims worldwide, including 330 packages sent to the UK.
The 22-year-old was one of two students at the university whose suicides were linked to Law, with five deaths in Scotland forming part of a global investigation into the 60-year-old, who is facing justice in Canada.
Just a couple of weeks after taking a break from his studies, Tom died in a hotel room in Surrey in October 2021.
Father's undercover investigation
Dad David, who told an Ontario court of his grief last week, said he has taken some comfort from Law knowing how he helped uncover his enterprise. He is campaigning to protect others from harmful online communities like the one that encouraged Tom to end his life, saying they are continuing to claim lives despite promises of better regulation.
He told the Record: “Tom took a leave of absence from St Andrews uni just two or three weeks before he died. He was in his second year.
“This was pandemic times and obviously very strange times to be a student. It was not easy to be at any university during that time.
“He was sectioned in September 2021 just before his birthday in Fife, a month before he died.
“When Tom died I knew the answer would be online. I was told what substance he had taken. I quite quickly came across more than one website. Within three months I had ingratiated myself enough on the particular website to be able to find who we now know is Kenneth Law and order it.
“Within three months of Tom dying I had Kenneth Law’s package delivered to me and put it in my roof. A year after he died the coroner published the police investigation files and in those files was a photo of the package found in Tom’s room, which was exactly what I had in my roof.
“I’d tried to work every process in the meantime to show this was happening on a wider scale. I had no idea it was the scale we are seeing now. But I knew it was more than Tom.”
Undercover probe and arrest
David contacted James Beal, the investigations editor at The Times, over what he had found. It led to the undercover probe that unmasked Law. Posing as a customer, Beal made an undercover phone call to Law, who confirmed that buyers in various countries had died from taking his product.
Law was arrested in Canada in May 2023. He later admitted 14 counts of aiding suicides in Canada after meeting people in online forums, linked with 79 deaths in the UK.
Among other victims named in court was Hansen Wang, a 22-year-old St Andrews student who died on March 7 2023. He had called emergency services from his residence hall saying he had ingested poison but paramedics were unable to revive him. Krystle Mary Anderson, 36, was also found dead in a tent in a secluded area of woodland in Lossiemouth, Moray, on July 6 2022.
Campaign for change
Law will not face charges over any British deaths, but they have been considered in sentencing hearings which opened in Ontario last week, with dozens of impact statements being read to the court.
David said in his statement: “Initially, in the months after he died, I didn’t properly mourn him, because my focus was on understanding, and then exposing the harm caused by the internet platforms that allowed Law to trade suicide to kids.
“I’m still, after five years, unable to fully process Tom’s death...I find it difficult to enjoy life.”
David said hearing the devastating impact on UK families demonstrated why Law should have been extradited to face justice here. He said: “Part of the feedback I’m getting is that Law’s reaction was one of apathy. He doesn’t seem to be impacted at all.
“I wrote something deliberately short and sharp because I wanted him to hear it.
“When James Beal confronted Law he kindly used Tom’s name and I have taken some comfort from Law knowing that it was me and James that finally put a stop to this.”
Since Tom’s death, David has campaigned for a UK public inquiry into why the suicides were not linked sooner. He has also joined the pro-suicide site Tom accessed to help campaign for them to be shut down.
The site’s operator was fined £950,000 in May by online safety regulator Ofcom, but it later said it could not pursue further action and 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 Online Safety Act.
The forum is still accessible in the UK via a VPN, and David said he has seen evidence that young people are still ending their lives because of it.
He said: “People are still dying.
“They actively encourage people like Kenneth law to come on the platform and sell their wares.
“It’s a proper echo chamber to normalise suicide and it’s just so sad that we still allow it.
“I had no idea that Tom would be able to go on the internet and find a group of people who would encourage him to die.
“One of the reasons I talk about this is to make people aware, don’t be as naive as I was and think that you can’t find these things.
“If these were shops on our high streets they’d be closed down. It’s amazing to me that they’re allowed to create harm.
“On my bad days I think we shouldn’t have lost Tom, if authorities had taken notice of coroners and taken the firm action needed then Tom wouldn’t have found that website.
“I feel obligated and motivated to ensure other people don’t do this because losing a child is hell and impacts the rest of your life in ways I find difficult to describe.
“What we’re seeing (in Law’s case) is a first of it’s kind, but we need to focus on the next steps because this is not the only time this is going to happen.”
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch.
