In mid-December former cook Kenneth Law, 58, was charged by Toronto area police with 14 counts of second-degree murder in Canada’s Ontario province. Law denies the charges.

These have now been upgraded to first degree murder, according to court filings, reflecting the prosecution’s position that the homicides were planned and deliberate.

“He intends to defend (himself against) these new charges just as he’d plan to defend the previous ones,” defence attorney Matthew Gourlay told AFP.

“It’s surprising. We don’t yet know the theory by which the Crown is proposing to ask a court to convict him of murder,” he added.

Law was arrested in May for marketing a substance that is used as a food additive but can kill if misused. He is said to have targeted vulnerable people online.

He is believed to have sent as many as 1,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries since 2020.

Canadian police said last month they were coordinating their investigation with law enforcement agencies around the world.

In Britain, at least 272 people purchased products from Law’s websites and 88 of them died, police there have said.

Alerted by Interpol, several other countries have launched investigations, including New Zealand and Italy, where nine buyers have been identified and one victim has died.

The Canadian victims were both male and female between the ages of 16 and 36, according to police.

Law is scheduled to appear in court next week.