Poison seller Kenneth Law pleads guilty to abetting Ontario suicides, won’t be prosecuted for deaths in U.K.

envenom trafficker Kenneth jurisprudence pleads shamed to abetting 14 suicides in Ontario

Court is now back in session, with Law back in the prisoner's box. Assistant Crown attorney Cindy Nadler is resuming with the agreed statement of facts, and reading the circumstances of deaths in the U.K. Into the record.

Loved ones of Maurizio Vadala are wearing grey T-shirts with a heart on the front and Vadala's picture in the middle. 

He died in March 2023 in Mississauga. Vadala's death was one of the two in Ontario's Peel Region for which Law was initially charged, before police added further charges for deaths across the province. 

Vadala was 36. 

Ontario investigators did say, however, they had worked with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, among other international partners, on this case.

"I'm just giving the FBI everything I have on my brother's phone … any information," Gerald previously said in an interview. "They were well aware of Law in this area."

"I want something where I can say we got justice for Benji," Gerald said.

Court is now taking a 20-minute recess for the morning break.

The Crown previously said the agreed statement of facts, which is still being read into the record, would likely take about three hours to complete.

Poison seller Kenneth Law pleads guilty to abetting 14 suicides in Ontario

Kenneth Law has pleaded guilty to counselling or aiding suicide, in connection with 14 deaths in Ontario. Law operated websites that sold toxic substances and suicide paraphernalia.

Over and over, the court is hearing about victims who were found unresponsive, with packaging or paraphernalia from Law's companies nearby.

In many cases, they were found by loved ones. Some were found at home, some in hotels, and others in cars.

The statement that punctuates each death being read into the record: "It is admitted that [their] death was caused by the consumption of the product sold by Mr. Law." 

Court heard a list of some 40 countries Law shipped more than 1,200 packages to, including: Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.

The U.S. Received the largest number of Law's parcels: 431. 

Court is now hearing about the death of Ashtyn Prosser-Blake, who died on March 31, 2023, at the age of 19. He received a shipment from Law just a few days before, on March 29.

Prosser-Blake lived in the basement of his grandparents' home, in Thunder Bay, Ont. When his grandmother was checking the doors that night to make sure they were locked, she found a journal at the top of a set of stairs that said goodbye.

She found her grandson unresponsive and called 911. Prosser-Blake was pronounced dead in hospital.

The courtroom is now also hearing about deaths in the U.K. Linked to Law.

Prior to his arrest, Law worked as a cook at a posh downtown Toronto hotel. 

Public documents show Law was $130,000 in debt and filed for bankruptcy in April 2020. Civil court records from that same year show that the Royal Bank of Canada sued Law for non-payment of credit card debt. A judge ordered him to pay $27,000 plus interest on the debt.

He was living in the basement apartment of a detached house in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga at the time of his arrest.

Law remains seated in the prisoner box. He's looking straight forward as the Crown attorney reads the agreed statement of facts, naming each of the 14 Ontario victims and explaining how each person died.

Law is showing no emotion and has made no eye contact with anyone in the public gallery.

A special constable is seated near him in a chair next to the prisoner box door.

Law's hair is longer and greyer than in the mug shot, above, released by Peel Regional Police in 2023. He spent part of the past three years at Maplehurst, a notorious Ontario jail. 

Kenneth Law's crimes had a global impact. Authorities believe he may have shipped packages of poison to vulnerable people in dozens of countries, with the largest number of victims being in the U.K. 

British investigators said Friday they believe Law sent 330 packages to the country, and they say at least 79 people died as a result. 

"Maybe it's going to say to other people: you can't do this. You just can't go around deciding who's going to live and who is going to die," she said. 

For years before her death, Immy, who was deaf, struggled with her mental health. Immy shared many of her experiences on social media to help others. Her Instagram account, which is still active, has more than 800,000 followers. Her assistance dog, Whitney, a spaniel, is also still a part of the Nunn family. 

Louise said she looks at her daughter's social media posts frequently, which continue to bring her some comfort. 

"I like to watch them and it feels like she’s still in the room again, but unfortunately the dog hears her voice and starts crying," she said. "That’s really hard." 

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