{"id":672960,"date":"2026-05-16T07:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:23:15","slug":"suicide-kits-ukraine-business-selling-deadly-chemical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/672960\/","title":{"rendered":"Suicide kits: Ukraine business selling deadly chemical"},"content":{"rendered":"

W5’s Jon Woodward speaks to a BBC journalist who confronted the Ukrainian seller of a toxic chemical used in suicide kits that appears to still be in business. <\/p>\n

This is part two of a multi-story series. Read part one here<\/a><\/p>\n

Warning: Graphic content. <\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2013 A Ukrainian seller of a toxic chemical used in suicide kits who was exposed in a British investigative report years ago appears to still be in business, claiming he\u2019s \u201cregularly\u201d selling to Canada, a W5 investigation has found.<\/p>\n

The man, identified by the BBC in 2024 as Leonid Zakutenko, was using the same website and even the same phone number, years after police in both the United Kingdom and Ukraine were alerted to the trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still can\u2019t quite believe we are still talking about how we stop this guy. It\u2019s literally cost lives,\u201d said David Parfett, a British citizen who got involved in the search for sellers after his 22-year-old son ordered and ingested the substance, a legal meat preservative often referred to as \u201cSN\u201d that is lethal in high concentrations.<\/p>\n

\"\"W5 investigation British student Tom Parfett, 22, died in 2021 after consuming a legal meat preservative that is lethal in high doses, sold by Kenneth Law. (Photo supplied) <\/p>\n

Parfett\u2019s son Tom died in 2021 after finding out about the product on a pro-suicide online forum, and ordering the product from a Canadian seller, Kenneth Law.<\/p>\n

After Parfett raised the alarm in British media, Law was arrested east of Toronto in 2023. He\u2019s now expected to plead guilty to 14 counts of aiding and abetting suicide, connected to deaths in Ontario.<\/p>\n

Among the Ontario deaths are 21-year-old Stephen Mitchell Junior, 19-year-old Ashtyn Prosser-Blake and 18-year-old Jeshennia Bedoya Lopez. A tally by W5 connected Law\u2019s products to 150 deaths around the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"W5 investigation Former chef Kenneth Law is expected to plead guilty to 14 counts of aiding and abetting suicide in connection with deaths in Ontario. (Photo obtained by CTV News) Data shows deaths from chemical continue<\/p>\n

W5 examined statistics from coroners and medical examiners across Canada to look at the patterns of deaths from SN. The numbers rose from just 3 in 2018 to more than 30 after the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 and dropped sharply after his arrest.<\/p>\n

But despite the drop, the data shows the deaths of 28 Canadians in 2024 and 2025 were linked to SN, suggesting that other sellers are still active.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that Kenneth Law was probably the most active. Certainly online, he was promoting his poison \u2026 what was certain to me was that it wasn\u2019t only Kenneth Law who was selling this poison,\u201d Parfett said.<\/p>\n

Parfett ordered a package from another seller, which arrived about 10 days later, and was accompanied by a welfare check from British police.<\/p>\n

He handed his findings to the BBC and work began on tracing it, said former BBC video journalist Tony Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still quite surprising when this white powder turns up that you can use to take your own life, about ten days after you order it,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Seller traced to Ukraine <\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s work in tracing the finances connected them to a man named Leonid Zakutenko. In 2024, a team travelled to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to confront him.<\/p>\n

Zakutenko denied selling the product, saying through a translator in the video report<\/a>, \u201cThat\u2019s a lie.\u201d Smith said the BBC gave the results of the investigation to police in the U.K. and in Ukraine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a court order. We handed a whole sheaf of evidence and documents over to the U.K. police, the Met Police in London. And the frustrating thing is, nothing\u2019s happened,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\"\"W5 investigation Leonid Zakutenko is confronted by a BBC journalist in Kiev, Ukraine. (Tony Smith\/BBC) \u2018We can and do ship regularly to Canada\u2019<\/p>\n

When W5 looked at the same website two years later, it advertised the same chemical for sale, for order from the same phone number.<\/p>\n

We messaged that number, using the name of a pro-suicide forum, and asked, \u201cWe are wondering if you ship the preservative to Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n

The response: \u201cYes, we can and do ship regularly to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked directly about the business in a brief exchange, the seller denied that he sold the products for suicide, calling it a \u201cminor fantasy\u201d in automatically translated text.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a reporter from Canada, you know absolutely nothing about cooking. My counter-question: are you as far removed from cooking as a guinea pig is from the sea?\u201d the message read.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we follow your principles, any salesperson could be prosecuted for selling a suit, because a potential buyer could hang himself with a tie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The seller insisted he only sells to people interested in cooking, and no minors, but didn\u2019t explain how he could verify that over the internet.<\/p>\n

\"\"W5 investigation Parfett ordered a package of the meat preservative from a salesperson the BBC identified as Leonid Zakutenko in 2023. (David Parfett) Canada\u2019s border agency intercepts packages<\/p>\n

When it comes to the protections at Canada\u2019s borders, the Canada Border Services Agency says it has intercepted at least 30 packages containing the chemical, starting in 2023.<\/p>\n

The agency said in a statement that \u201cappropriate help and resources were provided by local police, including admitting some individuals to hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s embassy in Canada didn\u2019t respond to questions about its efforts to follow up on the earlier investigation. That country is in the midst of trying to repel a Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

In Canada, Peel Regional Police said they couldn\u2019t comment on any efforts to stop other sellers of suicide kits, saying, \u201cdoing so could compromise the integrity of any potential investigative activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"W5’s Jon Woodward speaks to a BBC journalist who confronted the Ukrainian seller of a toxic chemical used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[712,45,49,48],"class_list":["post-672960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}