Kenneth Law's Sentencing Opens: Survivor Testifies as UK Deaths Go Uncharged
British survivor Elisabeth Belien confronted Canadian poison seller Kenneth Law in an Ontario courtroom on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, as his four-day sentencing hearing opened.
Belien appeared in person. She said she was 23 when Law sold her toxic chemicals while she was at her lowest point. She said she took the poison in January 2023 while struggling with her mental health, describing herself as "desperate" for an escape. She survived after medics gave her an antidote, and she physically recovered.
She told the court Law made it easier to act on that despair and that she felt her vulnerability was exploited. She said she felt survivor's guilt after police told her others had died.
Law has admitted 14 counts of aiding suicides in Canada after meeting people in online suicide forums, sites where vulnerable people discuss ending their lives. He pleaded guilty to counselling or aiding 14 suicides in Ontario. He will not stand trial for murder after that plea. BBC
Almost 80 deaths in the UK have been linked to Law. An earlier account of his plea said he admitted causing the deaths of 79 victims in Britain. He has also been tied to 147 other deaths worldwide. CBC
Authorities say Law, a former chef, sold about 1,200 packages of toxic substances to people he met in those forums in 40 countries. Roughly a quarter of those packages were sent to the UK. He was arrested in May 2023 after an investigation by at least 11 law-enforcement agencies, with investigators from about a dozen countries including the UK, Italy and the US.
The hearing is underway in a packed courtroom in Newmarket, Ont. It began after his guilty plea. The court is hearing emotional victim impact statements, formal accounts in which victims or families describe harm, and statements from families of British victims are being read. CTV News
As part of a plea deal with Canadian authorities, an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to avoid more serious charges, Law will not face charges in the UK or over any British deaths. Reporting after his plea in May 2026 put his possible sentence at 10 to 20 years in prison.
The broader context here is how accountability works across borders. A Canadian prosecution for 14 Ontario deaths will carry the full prison term, while deaths in Britain and elsewhere are addressed only through impact statements, not separate charges. For experts on transnational crime and extradition, the trade is familiar. Certainty and a long sentence in one place closes off prosecution in another. For British families whose statements are being read in Newmarket, that difference decides whether the hearing feels like a trial of their losses or testimony at someone else's sentencing.
