Britain’s FBI has launched a formal investigation into a Canadian chef who was allegedly caught selling poison to suicidal people online after discovering he could be linked to as many as 88 deaths.
The UK’s National Crime Agency began working with police forces to identify potential victims of Kenneth Law, 57 after the Times claimed that he had sent 1,200 packages to 40 countries.
Law, an aerospace engineer turned chef, was arrested by Canadian police shortly after the newspaper published its allegations against him.
He is being held after being charged with two offences of aiding suicide and is due to appear in a court in Ontario later today.
A list gathered by the International Criminal Police Organization, more commonly known as Interpol, containing details of Law 232 British customers was handed to the National Crime Agency, who went on to establish how many had died.
Craig Turner, deputy director of the NCA, told the paper: ‘Our deepest sympathies are with the loved ones of those who have died.
‘They are being supported by specially trained officers from police forces.
‘In consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, the NCA has taken the decision to conduct an investigation into potential criminal offences committed in the UK.’
In other countries, Law sent packages to include the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Italy.
In Australia, at least ten packages are known to have been sent out, being linked to several deaths within the country.
The kits were reportedly filled with a comprise of powders sent in separate packages to then combine as the final lethal poison. It is also said to contain a book on suicide.
Laws victims have included teenagers, as well as youngsters in their 20s and 30s.
Earlier this year Law told an undercover reporter for the Times that he ‘many, many, many, many’ people had died over a period of two years.
He was said to have boasted that some buyers had told him he was doing ‘God’s work’.
Law told the reporter he had started selling the poison after seeing his mother suffer from a stroke.
‘We’re not advanced enough as a civilization to accept death openly. I hope I’m just being a little bit more enlightened,’ he said.
Anthony Jones, a 17-year-old from Michigan, was one of Law’s alleged victims.
‘It was 3 a.m. and he went running into his mom’s room, screaming and begging to call emergency responders,’ New York lawyer Carrie Goldberg told CTV News Toronto.
He ran to his mother shouting ‘I want to live’ after ingesting the substance, which eventually killed him, the initial investigation revealed.
In Britain, Tom Parfett, 22, Michael Dunham, 38, Neha Raju, 23, and a 21-year-old student all died after buying products from Law’s company.
The father of Berkshire-born Mr Parfett said: ‘I believe my son would still be alive if it wasn’t for this man and this substance.’
It is illegal to assist suicide in the UK and Canada, punishable by up to 14 years in prison in both.
