A man in the United Kingdom has been arrested after authorities say he “encouraged or assisted” the death of at least one British person in Switzerland. Police are investigating the possibility of many more victims.
Sean Davison allegedly broke British law by aiding a 79-year-old in traveling to Switzerland so that she could commit suicide where “assisted death” is legal. According to ITV News, Davison has publicly admitted to helping people leave the country in order to kill themselves, and the police are investigating him for 29 deaths.
He told The New Zealand Herald that none of the 29 people had a terminal illness, but simply “felt they had lived a complete life.”
Though Davison was apparently arrested last summer, details of his arrest are just now coming to light.
Dorset Police confirmed the arrest to ITV News:
At around 7.30 am on Monday 15 July 2024, officers executed a warrant at an address in the Sandford area of Wareham under Section 8 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. A man aged in his 60s was arrested on suspicion of intentionally doing an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide of another. He has been released on police bail as further enquiries are carried out.
Our investigation is continuing and as is usual in a complex case, we have been liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service to ascertain if the threshold for prosecution is met. We will not be going into any further details at this time.
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This is not Davison’s first run-in with the law over aiding others in committing assisted suicide; he has a history of promoting and encouraging euthanasia across the globe.
In 2019, he was convicted of murder in South Africa after helping three people die in violation of that nation’s laws. Prior to that, he was convicted in New Zealand of killing his own mother after he alleged that she was too weak to administer a lethal overdose of morphine herself and wanted him to do it. In each instance, he received a light sentence of house arrest, allowing him to continue his quest to help others die.
Despite multiple run-ins with the law, Davison maintains that while he is helping people die, he hasn’t done anything wrong.
“I didn’t think I was breaking the law,” he told The New Zealand Herald. “Somebody should be holding their hand as they die. I feel ashamed of nothing.”
