The harmless envelope arrived through the letterbox in a small package that could fit in the palm of your hand. However, the content that landed on David Parfett’s Maidenhead -door mat were anything but harmless. In the plastic zipper, 50 grams was a deadly white substance.
After watching his delivery carefully, David put it back in his packaging stamped in Canada and kept it safely in his loft. The poison, shipping costs and the packaging arrived at around $ 60 CAD (about £ 30).
David had bought the substance to try to understand how difficult it would be to get what his 22-year-old son, Tom killed. He thought it was worse.
“Tom was just a nice person who saw the good in people,” says David, 56, Metro. “One of his teachers described him as a great moral compass. He was an incredibly intelligent man I know for sure would have had a great career. I miss him very much. ‘
Tom’s mother, Julia, described their son as a ‘nice young man with an infectious smile’. Growing up with fear, autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder meant that Tom was not easy. His mental health seriously staggered when his philosophy diploma at the University of St. Andrews was disturbed by the pandemic.
“A good friend of one of his best friends took his own life shortly after the start of the university, and that was one of the first times I spoke about it,” David recalls, who works as a data director.
“He was pretty clear that he did not want to use a method that could possibly 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 it was impossible, and that’s why we had time to help him. I am pretty sure that he would be here today if he did not find it online. ‘
David and Julia divorced 11 years ago and Tom lived with his father for five years as a teenager. They spoke regularly and had a close relationship. When Tom started to struggle with suicidal thoughts, he sought psychological support, he was prescribed antidepressants and came closer to home. Around the same time he had discovered suicide forums online where he was passed on to a substance that he was told to be effective and painless.
In October 2021, Tom, who had also tried to take his own life the month earlier, checked in a Premier Inn in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, the small Gif that he had ordered online and died.
‘Sadness is a fairly individual process, but it is difficult to continue. It is difficult to think about something else after losing Tom. There is guilt and the thought – we could have done more to stop, “says David, who shares his story in the new Channel 4 -series, Poisheed: Killer In The Post.
A year after the death of his son, David, who now lives in Twickenham, the police potential went to the coroner and noticed that the package with the poison came from a company was run by a Canadian chef, Kenneth Law, the same name he had seen on the things he had ordered.
David went to the police with this information, but because the substance is legal to buy, sell and export, they said they could not do anything. He then contacted a reporter called James BealThat undercover was about requesting a telephone consultation with the law.
The Times journalist claimed that the law told him during the call that he had sent his product to ‘hundreds’ people in the UK and that he did ‘God’s work’. He also said that he had set up the company after he had seen his mother suffer after a stroke – a claim that was not verified – and urged James to buy the poison so that he has something ‘immediately available’.
Shortly after the story was published, Kenneth’s law was arrested. He is now waiting for the process in Canada next year, with a total of 14 murder attacks in the first degree and 14 counts of helping and advising suicide. His lawyer said he will not argue guilty. At this point the forces in the UK were warned that packages had been sent and started visiting addresses, including David’s.
All charges are linked to the death of people from very Ontario from 16 to 36, but he is believed by the Canadian forces to have sent more than 1,200 so -called suicide kits to around 40 countries, including the UK.
The National Crime Agency investigates potential offenses related to the death of 97 people who have purchased articles to help with suicide online.
A spokesperson for NCA said: ‘The National Crime Agency continues to investigate potential criminal offenses related to the death of private individuals in the UK who have purchased articles to help with suicide of websites established in Canada. Our research investigates all feasible leads related to these websites and a Canadian suspect to identify evidence of crimes committed in the UK. Specialist officers continue to support the victims and families. ‘
Helping suicide is illegal in the UK and Canada and is punishable with a maximum of 14 years in prison in both countries. The websites of the law have been removed and he remains in custody. His trial will probably be held in January next year, where his lawyer, Matthew Gourlay, has said that he will not argue guilty.
In the meantime, suspect victims have been found around the world; In France, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and Nieuw -Zeeland. Packages were found in the UK in Cumbria, Surrey, London, Plymouth and the island of Wight.
As the alleged involvement of the law of law came to the fore in the death of vulnerable people, David wanted to do more to understand and make the dangers known, so he ordered the poison online. He was on vacation on the island 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 picked it up and took it to be destroyed. After the arrest of the law, Interpol had contacted local troops around the world so that officers could visit the houses that the packages had received.
The police of Thames Valley came to pick up the substance was a ‘brilliant result’ for David. While charity institutions warn about publishing information about suicide methods, so that’s why Metro Will not mention the substance that Tom killed, David wants to emphasize how easy it can be to buy online.
‘I just tried to follow Tom’s footprints and understand what he went through. It was incredible how easy it was to find, which is just surprising. ‘David also disputes the idea that this specific material, which has only been used in suicides in the last decade, offers a painless end, as it was advertised online.
‘It is an unbearable death – and that is supported by medical research. That is by no means painless. ‘
He explains: ‘It is important to teach people. I work in it and have the internet since I could. And yet, before Tom died, I was blissfully unconsciously that he could go online and find this stuff. He didn’t have to go on the dark web or something.
If you have a child like my son, you must be aware of these dangers
“Tom had been on a suicide forum. I didn’t even know these places existed. He started actively talking to a few people, found the information he wanted about how he could take his own life and where he could buy it.
‘If you have a child like my son, you must be aware of these dangers, and at least you can do something about it. I want to inquire families that this is there so that they can talk to their young people about it. Because these sites are echo rooms. They take what you feel and strengthen it. It’s sick. ‘
And those who sell the toxins and earn money with suicide websites continue to benefit from death, says David. ‘It is difficult to understand the motivations of people. To exchange things for suicide such as a company, I can’t think of much worse actions. Encourage people to take their own lives is simply monstrous and free outside the concept. ‘
In the meantime, Tom’s family is lagging behind with sorrow, destruction and a desire to ensure that others do not suffer in the same way. Last year David founded the Thomas William Parfett Foundation to improve online safety for vulnerable people and to prevent the delivery of GIF online.
‘If you look at every product that you can buy, a meal from a restaurant or a car from a dealer, there is a duty of care for the people who offer that product to ensure that it doesn’t hurt. And yet you can build an internet site that encourages suicide, “he explains.
‘It seems very incredible to me that the internet does not have that safety. It is extremely frustrating, knowing that there will be people who are not necessarily in the best 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. ‘
A version of this story was first published in May 2025.
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