Families of UK victims deliver impact statements at Kenneth Law sentencing

Law sold about 1,200 packages of toxic substances across 40 countries

Tanya Whitaker broke down at the start of her video statement at an Ontario court Thursday, telling the four-day sentencing hearing for Kenneth Law that her son’s death and the way he died had “destroyed” their family.

“He barely had a chance,” Whitaker said of her son, Samuel, a 19-year-old University of Warwick student who was found collapsed outside his university halls.

“The enormity of losing a child is catastrophic,” she told the court. “Samuel was just 19 when he was handed the tools that ended his precious life.”

“It has broken me completely and utterly. It has broken us as a family and me as a mother,” Whitaker added, saying her son “died alone at university 100 miles away from his family. We will never be able to forgive ourselves for this happening.” Whitaker said Samuel had been the only biological son of her husband, Paul. “He is a shell of himself today. Broken and devastated beyond repair,” she added.

Law, a former chef, has admitted 14 counts of aiding suicide in Canada. British authorities have confirmed 79 UK residents died after using products he sold. A plea deal with Canadian authorities means Law will not face charges in the UK or over any British deaths, but impact statements from UK families are being read this week — the only formal judicial forum in which British relatives can address him directly.

Debbie Cornish, the mother of British victim Danielle Cornish, delivered a written statement that echoed Whitaker’s, telling the hearing her family was “still fighting” to stay together years after her daughter’s death. Cornish referred to Law only by the initials “KL.”

“Words on paper can’t even begin to describe the painful loss of our amazing daughter,” Cornish wrote. “Nothing will be the same ever again as we are part of a surreal nightmare.”

“Nearly four years on, we are still fighting to keep our family together… not to mention the constant thoughts of how she may have died,” she wrote. “KL has changed the life of many many families all across the world as well as ours. We are living a constant nightmare.”

The court also heard from Faith George, the mother of Faith Ike-Elechi, whom she referred to by the nickname Chimma. George said she found her daughter helpless on the floor after she had taken the poison, and that her daughter’s last words “echo in my mind every day.” She said if she were able to speak to her daughter again she would tell her she had never stopped being proud of her.

Maurice Dunham, the father of British victim Michael Dunham, said the last time he saw his son alive was on a family holiday to Croatia that Michael had left early to return home. “The last conversation I had with him was an argument,” Dunham said in a written statement.

Maurice returned home days later and discovered Michael was dead. “The feeling I had was like an electric shock going through me,” he wrote. “I blamed myself for not stopping Michael from leaving the hotel room. I planned to take my own life. I didn’t care if I lived or died.”

The mother of Yeanu Mistry told the court that hearing he had died was “the news every parent fears.” Maureen Cooper, the mother of poison victim Gary Cooper, called the pain of losing her son “unbearable” and described the death as “the thing of nightmares.”

Adele Zeynep Walton told the court her sister, Aimee Louise Elif Walton of Southampton, “died in a strange place, in a strange city, in the company of a stranger [she] met online.” Walton said someone from a suicide forum had flown from the United States and stayed with Aimee in a hotel room for the 11 days leading up to her death.

“You only need to listen to the recording of the emergency call to know how much she suffered during the last moments of her life,” Walton said.

On Wednesday, the court heard from Elisabeth Belien, a British survivor who was given an antidote that saved her after taking poison from Law. “I feel guilty for surviving,” she told the court. “Although I survived, it has also impacted my loved ones. I feel like my vulnerability was exploited. I still feel a lot of shame about what happened.”

Authorities say Law sold about 1,200 packages of toxic substances to recipients from 40 different countries whom he met in online suicide forums. Roughly a quarter of the packages were sent to the UK. He was arrested in May 2023 following a complex investigation by at least 11 law-enforcement agencies that involved investigators from around a dozen countries, including the UK, Italy, and the United States.

The hearing continues.