The innocuous-looking envelope arrived through the letterbox in a tiny packet that could fit in the palm of your hand. However, the contents that landed on David Parfett’s Maidenhead doormat were anything but harmless. Inside the plastic ziplock bag was 50 grammes of a lethal white substance.
After looking intently at his delivery, David put it back into its Canadian-stamped packaging and stowed it safely in his loft. The poison, postage and packaging came in at around $60 (approximately £30).
David had purchased the substance to try to understand how difficult it would be to get hold of what killed his 22-year-old son Tom. He found it disturbingly easy.
‘Tom was just a lovely person who saw the good in people. One of his teachers described him as having an amazing moral compass. He was an incredibly intelligent man who I’m sure would have had an amazing career. I miss him dearly,’ David, 56, tells Metro.
Tom’s mother, Julia, described their son as a ‘fine young man with an infectious laugh’. Growing up with anxiety, autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder meant Tom didn’t have it easy. His mental health severely faltered when his philosophy degree at the University of St Andrews was disrupted by the pandemic.
‘A close friend of one of his best friends took his own life soon after starting university, and that was one of the first times I talked to him about it,’ remembers David, who works as a data director.
‘He was quite clear that he didn’t want to use a method that potentially could go wrong or leave him disabled. He said he wanted to find something that was painless, cheap and reliable.
‘I was naive enough to think that it was impossible, and therefore, we had time to help him. I’m pretty sure that he would be here today if he didn’t find that online.’
David and Julia separated 11 years ago, and Tom lived with his dad for five years as a teen. They spoke regularly and had a close relationship. When Tom started struggling with suicidal thoughts, he sought mental health support, was prescribed antidepressants and moved closer to home. Around the same time, he’d discovered suicide forums online where he was directed to a substance that he was told was effective and painless.
In October 2021, Tom, who had also tried to take his own life the month previously, checked into a Premier Inn in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, ingested the small package of poison that he had ordered online and died.
‘Grief is quite an individual process, but it is difficult to keep going. It’s hard to think about anything else after losing Tom like that. There’s guilt and the thought – could we have done any more to stop it,’ David says.
A year after his son’s death, David, who now lives in Twickenham, was going through the police notes to the coroner and noticed that the package containing the poison came from a company run by a Canadian chef, Kenneth Law, the same name he’d seen on the stuff he’d ordered.
David went to the police with this information, but because the substance is legal to buy, sell and export, they said they were unable to do anything. He then contacted a reporter called James Beal, who went undercover to request a phone consultation with Law.
The Times journalist claimed that during the call, Law told him that he had sent his product to ‘hundreds’ of people in the UK and that he was doing ‘God’s work’. He also said he had set up the business after seeing his mother suffer following a stroke – a claim that has not been verified – and urged James to buy the poison so that he has something ‘readily available.’
Shortly after the story was published, Kenneth Law was arrested. He is now awaiting trial in Canada next year, facing a total of 14 first-degree murder charges and 14 counts of aiding and counselling suicide. His lawyer has said he will be pleading not guilty. At this point, forces across the UK were alerted that packages had been sent out and started visiting addresses, including David’s.
All of the charges are linked to the deaths of people from across Ontario aged 16 to 36, but he is believed by the Canadian force to have sent more than 1,200 so-called suicide kits to around 40 countries, including the UK.
The National Crime Agency are investigating potential criminal offences linked to the deaths of 97 individuals who purchased items to assist with suicide online.
An NCA spokesperson said: ‘The National Crime Agency continues to investigate potential criminal offences linked to the deaths of individuals in the UK who purchased items to assist with suicide from Canada-based websites. Our investigation explores all viable leads linked to these websites and a Canadian suspect in order to identify evidence of crimes committed in the UK. Specialist officers continue to provide support to victims and families.’
Assisting suicide is illegal in the UK and Canada and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison in both countries. Law’s websites have been taken down, and he remains in custody. His trial is likely to be held in January next year, where his lawyer, Matthew Gourlay, has said he will plead not guilty.
Meanwhile, suspected victims have been found around the globe; in France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand. In the UK, packages have been found in Cumbria, Surrey, London, Plymouth and the Isle of Wight.
As the scale of Law’s alleged involvement in vulnerable people’s deaths emerged, David wanted to do more to understand and publicise the dangers, which is why he ordered the poison online. He was on holiday on the Isle of Wight when the police knocked on his door a few days after the package arrived.
David’s youngest son, Harry, answered the door and showed the police to the attic where the poison was stored; they retrieved it and took it off to be destroyed. Following Law’s arrest, Interpol had contacted local forces across the globe so officers could visit the homes who’d received the packages.
Need support?
For emotional support, you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.
Their HOPELINE247 is open every day of the year, 24 hours a day. You can call 0800 068 4141, text 88247 or email: pat@papyrus-uk.org.
Thames Valley Police coming to retrieve the substance was a ‘brilliant result’ for David. While charities warn against publicising information about suicide methods, which is why Metro won’t name the substance that killed Tom, David wants to highlight how simple it can be to buy online.
‘I was just trying to follow Tom’s footprints and understand what he went through. It was incredible how easy it was to find, which is just astonishing.’ David also disputes the idea that this particular material, which has only been used in suicides in the past decade, provides a painless end, as it was advertised online.
‘It is an excruciating death – and that is backed up by medical research. That is by no means painless.’
He explains: ‘It’s important to educate people. I work in IT and have used the internet ever since I could. And yet, before Tom died, I was blissfully unaware that he could go online and find this stuff. He didn’t have to go on the dark web or anything.
If you’ve got a kid like my son, you need to be aware of these dangers
Quote Quote
‘Tom had been on a suicide forum. I didn’t even know these places existed. He actively started to chat to a few people, found the information he wanted about how to take his own life and where to buy it.
‘If you’ve got a kid like my son, you need to be aware of these dangers, and then at least you can arguably do something about it. I want to educate families that this is out there, so they can talk to their young people about it. Because these sites are echo chambers. They take what you’re feeling and amplify it. It’s sick.’
And those selling the poisons and making money from suicide websites continue to profit from death, says David. ‘It is difficult to understand people’s motivations. To actually trade things for suicide as a business, I can’t think of many worse acts. Encouraging people to take their own lives is just monstrous and quite beyond comprehension.’
Meanwhile, Tom’s family is left with grief, devastation, and a yearning to ensure others don’t suffer in the same way. Last year, David set up the Thomas William Parfett Foundation to improve online safety for vulnerable people and prevent the supply of poison online.
‘If you look at any product you can buy, a meal from a restaurant or a car from a dealer, there is a duty of care on the people who provide that product to make sure it does no harm. And yet, you can build an internet site that encourages suicide,’ he explains.
‘It seems quite incredible to me that the internet doesn’t have that safety by design. It is hugely frustrating, knowing that there will be people who are not necessarily in the best of mental health, who are looking for advice, but unfortunately, they will find people who encourage them to take their own lives.
‘It just seems ridiculous that we allow it. And I am determined to stop it.’