OTTAWA: A Canadian man who allegedly helped more than a dozen young people across the province of Ontario kill themselves by mailing them poison has been charged with 14 counts of second degree murder, police said on Tuesday.

Kenneth Law, 58, had previously been charged with 14 counts of counseling or aiding suicide.

Police said Law posted around 160 packages of sodium nitrite to people in Canada and also sent at least 1,200 packages to addresses in more than 40 countries.

"It's clearly significant ... to be laying this many (charges) and that's not taken lightly by the investigative team," Inspector Simon James of the police force in York, a northern district of Toronto, told a televised press conference.

The victims ranged in age from 16 to 36 but James declined to name them or explain why the charges against Law had been upgraded. He also said he did not know how many people abroad might have died.

"We continue to cooperate with law enforcement agencies and collaborate with them globally," said James.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp., citing official records and statements, said Law could be linked to 117 deaths around the world, most of them in Britain. It said authorities in New Zealand, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Switzerland all confirmed Law shipped packages to their countries.

Law, who police alleged used a number of websites to reach his victims, is in jail and will made his next court appearance on Dec. 19.

"One of the challenges that we face are a number of these sites are located in other countries where Canadian law does not apply," said James.

If Law is found guilty he will go down as one of the worst mass murderers in Canadian history. In April 2020, a 51 year old man shot dead 22 people in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia before being killed by police.