The Metropolitan Police will face questions from a coroner over what action it took to prevent an imported “suicide poison” from claiming the life of a 22-year-old student.
An inquest on Tuesday heard that Kenneth Law sent the lethal substance to Thomas Parfett, who was found dead at a Premier Inn in Sunbury-on-Thames in October 2021.
Law, 61, pleaded guilty earlier this year in Canada to assisting 14 suicides in his home country.
A National Crime Agency investigation has so far identified 286 recipients of Law’s packages in the UK. The substances have been linked to an estimated 79 deaths.
The inquest at Surrey Coroners’ Court heard that, in August 2021, a woman contacted the Met’s counterterrorism team after her 20-year-old daughter died the previous month from poison supplied by Law.
In response, the force’s chemical reporting team said it was “aware of similar tragic circumstances” involving the lethal substance.
Kate Beattie, representing the Parfett family, told the court: “The company and the name of the individual were known to police and had been brought to the attention of Scotland Yard in connection with a different death.
“Mr Parfett’s (Thomas’s father) very acute concern is that this happened months before Thomas’s death, before he bought the substance and took it.”
Pictured: Thomas Parfett, who died aged 22 after taking his own life in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey
Kenneth Law, 60, (pictured) who is linked to the deaths of dozens of people in the UK after selling them packages containing lethal substances
Law sold 1,200 packages containing lethal substances across 40 countries, including the UK
“Mr Parfett’s concern is that the Met’s chemical reporting team, which also appears to have links to the Home Office, may have known in mid-2021 that a seller was distributing a substance connected to a death.
“I would be very interested to know what, if anything, the Met or Home Office did between July and October 2021 in response to information about this substance being sent from that company.
“It is my understanding that protective or wider control measures can be put in place.”
Coroner Darren Stewart OBE agreed that he would seek answers from the Met about what it knew of the poison at the time.
Suggesting the direction his findings could take, Mr Stewart said there was “more than enough evidence” to indicate that Thomas died after obtaining the toxic substance from overseas without adequate checks or safeguards.
“It is also the case that I will likely find that Thomas accessed a chat room on a website dealing with suicidal thoughts and discussing them more generally,” he said.
The coroner said evidence suggested Thomas’s participation in the chat room “will have informed, if not influenced” the decision he made on October 27, 2021.
In his final moments, the philosophy student posted on the suicide forum that he had taken a substance.
Other users of the forum, which has itself been linked to about 160 deaths in the UK, did not intervene or contact emergency services.
The communications regulator Ofcom acted against the website earlier this year, blocking access to it for users in the UK.
However, the inquest heard that people with accounts created before enforcement began can still use the forum, as can those accessing it through VPNs.
Thomas’s father David, 58, has spoken of his anger at the decision to not extradite Law to Britain to face charges
Surrey Police Detective Sergeant David Grimes told the court that he had been unable to access the website during his investigation.
Ms Beattie suggested he had not made sufficient efforts and noted that Thomas’s father, David, who was sitting in court, had managed to access it.
She also questioned Detective Sergeant Grimes about why he had not tried to contact the site’s owner or Law during the investigation.
The officer repeatedly replied that the physical evidence at the scene pointed to suicide and said he did not believe Thomas had been encouraged or assisted in taking his own life.
Mr Stewart said Thomas’s death, along with the wider number of people affected by online purchases of lethal substances, demonstrated that the UK’s Poisons Act was no longer fit for purpose.
He said the legislation was “long overdue an update” to reflect changes in public life, including the ability to buy substances online without effective checks and safeguards.
“As I look across the number of deaths this substance has caused, I dismay at the young age of many of these people,” he said.
“It is unavoidably distressing, and I will keep that very much at the centre of my mind.”
After the hearing, Thomas’s father David, 58, said: “There are people in the UK who are still using that forum and being encouraged to take their own lives.
“In five years, nothing fundamental has changed.
“The significant thing for me is that Thomas was not talking about suicide. I did not know that these forums were so openly available, or that we allow them to operate in this country as a trading post for these methods.
“If someone is worried about a friend or a child, they need to understand that the greatest risk could be the screen in their bedroom.
“I simply want more people to be aware.”
He had previously spoken of his anger over the decision not to extradite Law to Britain to face charges.
Mr Parfett said the decision was “done to me, not with me” and did “in no way” deliver justice for his son.
He said: “I am angry but not surprised. For months, we have been told that the system is working and that the existing measures are sufficient. They are not.
“He has never been charged with a crime against Tom.
“Yet this is the man who made £50 by selling my son a substance to kill himself, probably after persuading him to do so, and he will never face charges.
“It sends the wrong message to others doing the same thing, typically through internet sites.”
The Met Police has been contacted for comment.
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