The Metropolitan Police are set to be scrutinized by a coroner over their handling of warnings concerning an imported 'suicide poison' that was sent to a 22-year-old student, Thomas Parfett, who died in October 2021. An inquest heard that Kenneth Law, 61, who has since pleaded guilty in Canada to assisting 14 suicides in his home country, sent the lethal substance to Parfett.
An investigation by the National Crime Agency has identified 286 UK recipients of Law's packages, which have been linked to an estimated 79 deaths. The inquest at Surrey Coroners' Court was informed that a woman had contacted the Met's counterterrorism team in August 2021, warning them that her 20-year-old daughter had died from Law's poison a month prior.
In response, the force's chemical reporting team stated they were 'aware of similar tragic circumstances' surrounding the use of the lethal substance. Kate Beattie, representing the Parfett family, told the court that the company and individual's name were known to police and had been brought to the attention of Scotland Yard in connection with a different death. "Mr. Parfett's very acute concern is that this was a matter of months before Thomas's death and before he purchased the substance and took it," Beattie stated.
Beattie also raised concerns about what actions, if any, were taken by the Met or the Home Office between July and October 2021 to address the information regarding the substance. The coroner, Darren Stewart OBE, agreed that he would seek answers from the Met regarding their knowledge of the poison at the time. Stewart indicated that there was "more than enough evidence" to suggest Thomas's death occurred because he was able to purchase the toxic substance from abroad without checks and balances.
The inquest heard that Thomas Parfett had accessed a chat room on a website that discussed suicide ideation, and his involvement in that forum "will have informed if not influenced the decision he took on October 27, 2021." Other users on the forum, which has been linked to around 160 UK deaths, did not intervene or contact emergency services. The communications regulator Ofcom took action to block the site from UK users earlier this year, though existing account holders and those using VPNs can still access it.
Thomas's father, David, expressed anger at the decision not to extradite Law to Britain, stating it "doesn't send the right message to other people that are doing the same thing, typically using internet sites." He lamented that "in five years, nothing has fundamentally changed" and that the public should be aware that "the biggest risk could be the screen in their bedroom."
Coroner Stewart commented that Thomas's death highlighted that the UK's Poisons Act is "long overdue an update" to address the modern-day reality of online substance procurement. He noted the distressing young age of many victims linked to this substance, a fact he would keep at the forefront of his mind.