Latest news with #KennethLaw
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
My sister took her own life after making sick pact with online chat room stranger who flew over from US to watch her die
A WRITER has described how a man flew from the US to watch her sister take her own life after meeting on a "sick" online forum. Adele Zeynep Walton, 26, told how her sister Aimee was discovered dead by cops in a hotel room in October 2022. 5 5 5 Aimee, who was just 21-years-old at the time, was found with a total stranger, who had flown from the US to watch her die. The sisters - who were raised in Southampton, Hampshire, both had active online lives growing up, but Aimee more so. Adele said that Aimee, who was neurodivergent, was bullied as a teenager and turned to online communities instead. When the pandemic hit, Aimee withdrew even further into the online world, her sister - writing in The Telegraph - explained. She broke up with her boyfriend and spent an increasing amount of time in her room. The first Covid lockdown in England was announced in March 2020, and the third was on January 2021. It was in October 2022 that Adele - who was 25 at the time - and her parents were told that Aimee was dead. Aimee was found in a hotel room in Slough, Berkshire, 60 miles away from her home - with a stranger. They had met through a sick online forum that "partners" up people looking to end their own lives. This forum was also how she got her hands on the substance that killed her - reportedly from Kenneth Law, who has been linked to 88 deaths in the UK. According to The New York Times, the forum was founded by two men who run several "incel" websites. Adele took it upon herself to visit the thread and said many of the posts said: "Your family don't care about you" and "You should do it." She told The Guardian that the man who was with her little sister could have been "living out a sick fantasy as an incel who wants to see a young and vulnerable woman end her life'. The man told police he had been working for the 11 days he spent in the hotel room with Aimee. Adele wrote in The Telegraph: "This forum has taken at least 50 UK lives, including my sister. "From looking at the forum myself, I can see just how easy it is to end up in a rabbit hole of despair, where vulnerable users are told their loved ones don't care about them. "Being informed by police that Aimee died in a hotel room with a stranger who she met on this forum, and who flew from the US to witness her death, still haunts me." Adele now campaigns about the harms of the online world and has written a book called Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123. 5 5
Globe and Mail
22-05-2025
- Globe and Mail
Supreme Court hears whether suspect may face murder charges in suicide case
The Supreme Court of Canada has heard arguments about whether murder charges may be laid against a criminal suspect who is also charged with assisting the suicide of the same victim. Thursday's hearing sets the stage for a ruling that will have an impact on next year's trial of Kenneth Law, a Mississauga man who is accused of selling a salt compound toxic in large doses to people who planned to use it to kill themselves. Mr. Law has been charged with 14 counts of first-degree murder and aiding suicide and his trial is expected to begin in January. The top court's proceeding Thursday involves a nurse who was convicted of two counts of attempted murder for injecting lethal levels of insulin into herself, her mother and her 19-month-old daughter. The accused and the victims are not being identified in court. A suicide note was found at the scene. The Supreme Court is considering whether the judge erred in the nurse's case by distinguishing between charges of murder and charges of aiding suicide. The panel of Ontario Court of Appeal judges concluded merely giving someone a substance that was then used by that person to attempt suicide would not be enough to support a murder or an attempted murder conviction. Instead, the Ontario appeal court ruled, to support any murder charge the Crown would need to demonstrate that an accused actively helped cause the suicide in a way that 'overbore the victim's freewill.' In their earlier submission to the Supreme Court, Crown lawyers warned that the Ontario appeal court ruling could make it difficult to prosecute Mr. Law on the more serious charges of murder that he faces. Prosecutors representing the Attorney-General of Ontario launched a petition last September asking the Supreme Court for an urgent ruling on the circumstances under which homicide and counselling suicide may overlap. The nurse was represented at the Supreme Court by Matthew Gourlay, a criminal lawyer who is also representing Mr. Law. 'There is no such thing in Canadian law as a single death that is both a murder and a suicide,' said Mr. Gourlay. 'So what if you gave a gun to someone who has expressed a view that this is something they wanted to do?' asked Justice Andromache Karakatsanis in her questions to the lawyers in the room. 'That you provide the gun at the time you know they are particularly vulnerable at a particular period of depression?' Mr. Gourlay argued that a murder charge could not lawfully arise from such a scenario. He urged the top court to tell police and prosecutors they must refrain from laying homicide charges in counselling-suicide cases where an accused is not physically present or wielding a weapon. Mr. Law faces a maximum penalty of 14 years in a penitentiary if convicted on assisting suicide but a life sentence if guilty of murder. His name was never mentioned in the courtroom Thursday. All nine Supreme Court justices heard the case and did not say when they will release their pending ruling.
