A British victim of a Canadian poison seller died in the company of a stranger she met online after taking a lethal substance, a sentencing hearing was told. Kenneth Law, 61, is being sentenced in Ontario, Canada, after pleading guilty to 14 counts of aiding suicide, all relating to Canadian victims.
Law is linked to more than 100 suicides worldwide, having shipped lethal substances to people across the world, including in Wales. A total of 79 victims from the UK are known to have died as a direct result of buying poison from Law, who sold 1,200 packages to 40 countries from Canada-based websites.
Victim impact statements heard in court
During the second day of the sentencing hearing, the court heard victim impact statements from several of Law's British victims. Aimee Louise Elif Walton, from Southampton, was found dead in a hotel room on October 14, 2022.
Her sister, Adele Zeynep Walton's victim impact statement was played to the Canadian court on Thursday. In her statement, she said her sister was not found by a friend, as previously reported, but died in the company of a stranger she met in an internet forum where people discussed ending their own lives.
Adele Walton explained that the man "had flown from America to be with her when she died", and had been staying with her for 11 days before her death. "She died in a strange place, in a strange city, in the company of a stranger," Adele Walton told the court. "You only need to listen to the recording of the emergency call to know how much she suffered during the last moments of her life."
British victims and calls for inquiry
Ms Walton bought poison from Law for a total of 269 dollars (£203) on several occasions between June 2022 and September 2022. She had been struggling with her mental health since the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to her delaying her studies.
Authorities previously told the victims' families that Law would not face criminal proceedings in the UK because of the potential for the hotel cook to challenge the extradition under "double jeopardy" laws. This means a court could technically refuse extradition on the basis that Law had already been convicted of similar offences in another country.
Adele Walton, along with other family members of the British victims, criticised the decision, saying "doors have been shut" for families seeking justice. She said: "The question for our own country is simpler still: who here will examine how the British state let this happen, and what it will do so that no other family goes through it? A foreign sentencing hearing cannot answer that. Only a statutory public inquiry can."
Law's operations and sentencing
One of Law's victims, Danielle Cornish, 29, from Cardiff, was found unresponsive in her bathroom in 2022 after she bought a lethal chemical from Law. Three days before her death, Ms Cornish had told mental health clinicians she had a toxic substance. In an inquest into her death at Pontypridd Coroners' Court, Coroner Patricia Morgan said there had been missed opportunities in the lead-up to her death as the services knew she was home alone and in possession of the lethal substance.
According to the NCA, Law sent 330 products to 286 individuals in the UK. The court previously heard Law was the sole owner of four companies, with one firm's website offering a "set of instructions" and advertising 40-minute telephone consultations for 150 dollars (£111). The court in Ontario also heard how Law would sometimes frequent an online forum where users discussed ending their lives and he would post under the pseudonym "Greenberg" to direct people to one of his websites.
The maximum sentence for aiding suicide in Canada is 14 years, which is the same for encouraging suicide in the UK. It is thought that the sentence in this case is likely to be more than 14 years because of the number of victims and the nature of the offences.
