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Dan Calderone wears a shirt in memory of his close friend Maurizio Antonio Vadala, one of Kenneth Law’s victims, outside the sentencing hearing in Newmarket, Ont., on Wednesday.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
09/24/26 16:37
Hearings will resume in November
– Colin Freeze
The sentencing hearing for Kenneth Law is pausing until November.
All 74 victim impact statements presented by the Crown have now been entered into the public record.
Justice Michelle Fuerst said the criminal case will vacate court dates scheduled for September and resume with sentencing arguments on Nov. 27.
A sentencing ruling on Law’s prison term would follow, possibly not until 2027.
09/24/26 15:53
British parents describe son’s agonizing death
– Colin Freeze
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Kenneth Law appears in court in Brampton, Ont., in May, 2023, in an artist’s sketch.Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press
Earlier Thursday, British parents told the court that their 30-year-old son suffered an “agonizing” death, contradicting Law’s past claims that he had devised “painless and peaceful” methods.
“Our family must live knowing that Ross died a horrible, lonely and agonizing death,” his father, Kenneth Gibson, told the court in a written statement read by prosecutors.
“I am certain that if Kenneth Law’s website had not existed… Ross would be alive today,” his mother, Linda Gibson, wrote.
According to the agreed facts, Ross Gibson bought chemicals from Law on March 16, 2023, and died by suicide a month later. He was found on his bathroom floor after his boss and landlord went looking for him.
In May, when Law pleaded guilty to counts of aiding suicide, the court heard a recording of him taken weeks before his arrest.
In the recording, Law told a prospective buyer that he sold products that were “painless and peaceful.” The buyer was actually a journalist working undercover.
09/24/26 15:32
Man dies despite police welfare check
– Colin Freeze
Court heard from the grieving family of Mark Bailey, a 44-year-old British man who died by suicide in January of this year, more than four years after buying poison from Law in 2021.
According to the agreed statement of facts, “in May, 2023, Mr. Bailey was visited by police for a welfare check, following disclosure of Mr. Law’s customer list to law enforcement.”
But authorities were falsely told that Bailey had disposed of the chemicals he bought from Law. He ultimately used those same chemicals to take his own life.
09/24/26 14:14
Woman dies two years after buying poison that had ‘best before’ date
– Colin Freeze
Court has broken for lunch after hearing how one of Kenneth Law’s suicide kits, which included a “best before” date, claimed a woman’s life long after his arrest.
The details came from an account of the death of Emma Coletti, a 47-year-old British woman who was found dead in a forest more than two years after buying a kit from Law.
According to the agreed facts, Coletti paid the Canadian engineer US$88 for a toxic salt chemical that can be lethal if ingested.
She purchased the poison in April, 2022, more than a year before Law’s arrest in May, 2023.
But Coletti did not consume the product until November, 2024. By then, Law had been in jail for a year and a half.
On Thursday, Coletti’s family submitted a written victim impact statement.
Her relatives, who asked that their names be withheld, wrote that Coletti had been unsure whether she wanted to take her own life.
She held onto her kit for two and a half years. But her family said she felt she was facing “a fatal deadline” because of the markings Law put on his products.
“The kit had its own best before date,” they wrote.
Following Law’s arrest in 2023, Canadian police circulated his seized client list, containing 1,200 addresses, to police agencies globally. The aim was to prompt worldwide wellness checks and seizures through an Interpol Orange Notice.
“Orange Notices warn police, public institutions, Interpol member countries and other international organizations of dangerous materials, criminal acts or events that pose a potential threat to public safety,” the RCMP told The Globe and Mail in e-mail earlier this year.
Such measures, the Mounties said, can help police in the relevant jurisdiction in “assessing potential risks and implementing preventive or protective measures.”
But not every unused kit shipped by Law was taken out of circulation after his arrest.
09/24/26 12:49
Mother recounts daughter’s final moments
– Colin Freeze
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Defence lawyer Matthew Gourlay stands beside Kenneth Law as the indictment is read in court in Newmarket, Ont., in May.Illustration by Pam Davies
A U.K. mother has told a Canadian court about how she intercepted a deadly package of poison that was sent to her suicidal 21-year-old daughter.
But despite getting her daughter help after discovering the package, she still watched her die after a second parcel arrived unnoticed from Canada.
Faith Ike-Elechi killed herself with chemical powder she ordered to be delivered by mail on Aug. 23, 2022. She was 21 years old.
“What I did not know was that while she was receiving treatment and support, Kenneth Law supplied her a second package,” Faith George, a mental-health nurse, wrote. Her victim impact statement was read aloud by Ontario Crown Attorney Peter Westgate.
In her statement, George described how she was home when the first package of poison arrived in mid-2022. Knowing her daughter was struggling with mental-health issues, she recognized the threat posed by the chemical.
“I genuinely believed that we had prevented a tragedy,” she wrote.
After arranging treatment, she believed she had turned a corner in her daughter’s struggles. But one night, after midnight, she heard her daughter cry from her bedroom.
She found her daughter dying and terrified.
“The only words I repeatedly heard were ‘I’m sorry I drank it,’” George wrote. “I looked into her eyes and saw fear and what I believed to be profound regret.”
“There was nothing I could do to save her.”
In her statement, George, who called her daughter Princess, recalled her child’s dreams of becoming an astronaut, a writer, or attending an Ivy League university.
“Kenneth Law did not know my daughter,” she wrote. “He did not know she was receiving treatment and had every opportunity to recover.”
George said she wishes she could have found the strength to say what needed to be said in the moments before her daughter died.
“I would tell her she would not have to apologize. The last words I heard her say were ‘I’m sorry I drank it,’” she said. “I would have said ‘Princess, you have nothing to apologize for. I love you.’”
09/24/26 11:23
Law will not face charges in the U.K.
– Colin Freeze
Criminal charges are based on jurisdiction. The Ontario charges relate to Law’s sale of poisons and other lethal equipment to 14 Ontarians who used the products to kill themselves between 2021 and 2023. The oldest Ontario victim was 36, while the two youngest were just 16 years old.
In May, British officials had dropped plans to prosecute Law, who has admitted to shipping 1,200 suicide kits worldwide and facilitating the deaths in the country.
No other Canadian province outside Ontario has charged Law, who has admitted to shipping 157 suicide kits within Canada.
09/24/26 10:54
Ford rejects calls for inquiry
– Colin Freeze
Doug Ford is rejecting calls for a public inquiry into the Kenneth Law criminal case, as families request a probe into why Law was able to sell suicide kits around the world for years before being caught.
“The Premier’s comments in May on a public inquiry stand,” Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Premier, wrote Thursday in an e-mail responding to Globe questions about whether Ford is reconsidering his position.
Last spring, as Law pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts of aiding suicide in Ontario, Ford was asked by a reporter whether he would convene an inquiry into the case. The Premier said he would not.
On Wednesday, Toronto father Stephen Mitchell called on Ford to convene an inquiry, saying earlier police intervention and investigation could have saved lives, including that of his 21-year-old son.
“Premier Ford, I respectfully ask you to authorize an independent third-party inquiry into what occurred,” Mitchell said outside the court Wednesday. Hours earlier, the father delivered a harrowing impact statement in court, confronting Law over his role in Mitchell’s son’s death.
09/24/26 09:11
Colin Freeze reports from the first day of the hearing
09/24/26 09:10
What happened on Wednesday
– Colin Freeze
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Elena Kastoras, her partner Ethan Mitchell, Latha Mitchell, and Stephen Mitchell Sr. gather holding a photo of the late Stephen Mitchell Jr., after the first day of Kenneth Law’s sentencing hearing.ARLYN MCADOREY/AFP/Getty Images
A Toronto man whose son died by suicide after purchasing poison from Kenneth Law called for a public inquiry while speaking at a Wednesday sentencing hearing.
Stephen Mitchell called on the Ontario government to take action, as he and other relatives of Mr. Law’s victims delivered harrowing public victim-impact statements on the first day of the hearing. Mr. Mitchell’s son, Stephen Jr., died just weeks before Mr. Law’s arrest in 2023. Mr. Mitchell criticized Canadian law enforcement for not recognizing the threat that Mr. Law posed before a British newspaper exposed his business in the spring of 2023.
He said grieving families want to know why the 61-year-old Mississauga engineer was able to operate an online business selling toxic salts and other deadly paraphernalia for years before his arrest. By the time Mr. Law was stopped, he had shipped more than 1,200 deadly parcels, including 330 to Britain and 157 within Canada, mostly to young people at risk of suicide.
Mr. Mitchell said that earlier intervention could have saved lives, including his son’s. “Premier Ford, I respectfully ask you to authorize an independent third-party inquiry into what occurred,” he said outside the court.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford rejected the idea of a public inquiry earlier this year. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Crown attorney Peter Westgate said the court will hear victim-impact statements from a total of 74 people this week.
09/24/26 09:06
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,” Mr. 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, Mr. Law 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,” Mr. Law told the psychiatrist. “We all learn from our mistakes.”
Read the full story here.
09/24/26 09:04
Families of five victims share their stories
– Colin Freeze, Mike Hager
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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 more days as the families of victims from Canada and the U.K. provide victim-impact statements.
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.
09/24/26 09:02
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.
Prior to pleading guilty to the 14 counts of aiding suicide, Mr. 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).
09/24/26 09:00
A timeline of key events in the Kenneth Law case
– The Canadian Press
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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.