A journalist has revealed the chilling response he received when confronting the ‘Poison King’, who is linked to 99 deaths in the UK and is facing 12 murder charges in Canada.
Kenneth Law, a chef from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is accused of sending over 1,200 packages of poison across the globe and is facing multiple first-degree murder charges in Canada. He has pleaded not guilty.
Outside of Canada, the National Crime Agency said it launched its probe into the deaths of people in the UK who bought substances online to assist with suicide.
Law is thought to have knowingly sold poison to vulnerable people who intended to commit suicide, resulting in devastated families who have lost children and siblings to the poison flogged on the chef’s website.
When grieving family members went to the authorities regarding the website, they reported being brushed off, with police telling them there’s nothing they can do.
James Beal, Deputy Investigations Editor at The Times, took the case on and, after a long search in the dark world of online suicide forums, he managed to track Law down in his hometown in Canada, where he led him to admit to selling poison online.
‘When I started looking into this story, I had no idea it was going to become as prolific as it’s become,’ Beal said in Channel 4’s Poisoned: Killer in the Post, adding, ‘I had no sense that it was going to involve the deaths of hundreds of people from a deadly poison being sold all over the world, intentionally.’
However, when Beal finally tracked Law down, he refused accountability. He said, ‘It’s not my business, it’s their life,’ adding, ‘You can buy a gun, they are committing suicide, I’m not doing anything, I’m just selling a product.’
Kenneth Law, a chef from Toronto, Ontario, Canada was confronted on camera in a chilling Channel 4 documentary after being accused of sending over 1,200 packages of poison across the globe
The two-part documentary followed Beal after he heard from a father, who lost his son to the poison purchased on Law’s website.
He told Beal of his frustrations about the police’s failure to pursue Law’s website, despite knowingly assisting suicide being a criminal offence.
‘When I spoke to [the father], I couldn’t understand why police weren’t investigating,’ Beal said, continuing, ‘It was his belief that the person who was selling the poison knew he was assisting a suicide, and it is illegal to assist suicide.
‘I felt there was the chance to expose something going on here that hadn’t been noticed before.
‘After the call with David, I went straight onto [the website], and the first thing you could see is a plate of cold meats, and if you scroll down on the website, it appears to be selling products you might use around the home, liquid food flavouring, salts, and then nestled among them was the poison.’
Beal continued, ‘I wanted to find out who was behind it, who ran it, and what exactly was going on.’
‘Under the contact information, there was a P.O. box address in Canada, located in a city called Mississauga, about 45 minutes west of Toronto. There was also a phone number and an email address.
‘These two websites were definitely more explicit with their content and quite clearly selling goods for purposes of suicide.’
James Beal, Deputy Investigations Editor at The Times, looked into the case after receiving a phone call from a parent who lost their child to the poison
The poison seller, Kenneth Law (pictured), doubled as a chef at a upmarket five-star hotel in Canada
One testimony reviewing the poison on the website read: ‘Yeah, it’s a little pricey, but it’s probably the last $1000 I’m going to spend.’
After browsing the website, Beal said, ‘It was shocking to see a website like this could operate under the radar. On both websites, the email address and contact details were the same.
‘I googled his name, and immediately a CV popped up of a Kenneth Law, dated from 2005, and then at the bottom of the website, there was a picture of Kenneth Law himself dressed up in a tuxedo smiling at the camera.’
‘I had no doubt that there was someone called Kenneth Law living in Ontario, but would somebody really be as brazen or as foolish to use their real name on a website that may well be conducting criminality?’
To get to the bottom of the website, Beal settled on tracking down Law. He said, ‘I was looking for any information about him, where he might live and what he might be up to other than these websites.
‘When I did social media searches, I found the same picture as on the CV for a Kenneth Law in Canada.
‘He didn’t have many public posts; there was one strange post about erotic art, and there were other posts about the TV show Star Trek.
‘A large percentage of his Facebook friends appeared to work at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, a five-star hotel in downtown Toronto. I guessed that either he worked there or had worked there at some stage.
Law advertised the poison next to everyday household essentials, such as salt and other kitchen goods (pictured)
‘I was beginning to piece together who this person was,’ Beal said, adding, ‘There was enough information in front of me to try and conduct a full investigation around the website and the substance.’
‘This is someone who’s evaded scrutiny and accountability for almost two years…I needed to get him on the phone to admit this.’
By January 2023, Beal managed to get Law on the phone by purchasing a 40-minute consultation call advertised on one of his websites, designed to guide prospective buyers.
Beal said ‘I decided to speak to Kenneth Law under the guise of someone who needed help to get him to tell me things.
‘I needed to get him to admit on the phone that he was selling intentionally to a person who was suicidal. This would be the one and only chance to nail down who he was and find out the scale of his operation.
Under the name of John, James told Ken that he wanted to be sure about the purchase he would soon be making, asking, ‘What do you think the chances are that it will kill me?”
Kenneth said, ‘There’s a very high probability it will kill you, it’s killed hundreds of others.’ When asked whether it’s illegal, he responded, saying, ‘It’s a grey area, as long as I don’t sell it with intent to commit suicide, then it’s fine.’
Tom then asked, ‘And you can assure me that you’ve done this before will people in the UK?’ Ken assured him that he has, and that they’ve died because of it.
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He added that he believes the figure of deaths caused by the poison in the UK is in the hundreds.
Beal said, ‘After the undercover call with Kenneth Law, I was enormously shocked. He was being incredibly reckless and open, it clearly didn’t cross his mind that he could be speaking to a journalist.’
The journalist had received the confirmation he needed to travel to Canada to search for Law.
Beal managed to track him down by the PO address on his website. But after months of searching and longing to confront the poison seller, Law seemed indifferent when he approached him.
Law told him, ‘They’re committing suicide themselves, I’m just selling a product. You can buy a gun. I’m sorry – they had their intentions, I can’t stop them.’
Beal said, ‘He took no responsibility for the fact that people had already died because of this poison, and I knew he would continue to sell it if I didn’t try and stop him.
In April 2023, The Times published Beal’s investigation, leading to Law’s arrest one week later.
He is facing 14 counts of first-degree murder and 14 counts of aiding and assisting suicide in Ontario, Canada. He is being held at Central East Correctional Facility until his trial.
In the UK, no charges have been brought against him, even though he has been linked to 99 deaths in Britain.
The suicide forum is still running, and the poison is still readily available from other sellers.
Law’s trial for the 14 victims is scheduled for January 2026. He did not respond to allegations made in the Channel 4 series.
Poisoned: Killer in the Post is available to watch on Channel 4 on Demand.
