
Kenneth Law, a 58-year-old Canadian has been charged with 14 counts of second-degree murder, police said on Tuesday (Dec 12). Law allegedly helped more than a dozen young people across Ontariocommit suicide by mailing them poison.
Local reports mentioned that Law is believed to have sent as many as 1,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries since 2020.
The official documents showed that the charges filed against Law are on top of 14 he already faces for allegedly "counselling or aiding" suicides across Ontario province.
The mother of a teenage boy, who died by suicide, told CTV News, she could see the "light at the end of the tunnel" on Tuesday. "It's infuriating. It's very heavy to carry," Isabella, of Langley, BC, told CTV News.
She said that her son, Jaden, took his own life in February 2021 with the use of a nitrogen tank and regulator after consulting with Law over e-mail.
Matthew Gourlay, who is Law's defence lawyer, also confirmed to the news agency AFP that Law has been charged with 14 new counts of second-degree murder.
Earlier this year in May, he was arrested for marketing a substance that is used as a food additive but can kill if misused.
In fact, he even said that he had targeted vulnerable people online.
Police have said at least 272 people purchased products from Law's websites and 88 of them died in Britain.
Alerted by Interpol, several other countries have launched investigations, including New Zealand and Italy, where nine buyers have been identified and one victim has died.
The Canadian victims were both male and female between the ages of 16 and 36, according to police.
(With inputs from agencies)