UK survivor of Canadian poison seller says he exploited her despair

A British woman has told the sentencing hearing of Canadian poison seller Kenneth Law that he deliberately targeted vulnerable people in crisis, selling her a lethal substance when she was just 23 years old and at her lowest point.

Elisabeth Belien, now in her late twenties, delivered a victim impact statement at the Ontario court proceedings, describing how Law’s operation preyed on people who were suffering. She survived after taking the poison she purchased from him online.

A calculated business built on desperation

Belien’s account was unflinching. She told the court that Law didn’t stumble into this — he built a system around people’s pain. Packages arrived quickly, discreetly, with almost no friction. That efficiency, she argued, was no accident.

Law, a 60-year-old former chef from Mississauga, Ontario, faces dozens of charges related to counselling and aiding suicide. Prosecutors allege he sold lethal amounts of sodium nitrite to more than 1,200 people across multiple countries between 2020 and 2023. At least 88 of his customers are believed to have died, including 14 in the United Kingdom.

She was 23. That detail sat in the courtroom like a stone.

Belien said she had been in a severe mental health crisis when she found Law’s website. The process of ordering, she recalled, took minutes. There were no barriers, no warnings, no attempt to redirect her anywhere else.

“The exploitation of people in their most vulnerable moments is among the most serious conduct this court will ever consider,” a Crown prosecutor told the hearing.

Law has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to continue into late 2025, with dozens of additional victim statements still to be heard. Advocacy groups in both Canada and the UK are now pressing for tighter online regulations governing the sale of chemicals linked to self-harm.