Newcastle doctor accused of trying to murder man with fake Covid jab

Dr Thomas Kwan is accused of hatching an 'audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight' at his mum's home

A court has heard how a doctor allegedly disguised himself as a nurse to try to murder his mother's partner in front of her. Dr Thomas Kwan is accused of injecting Patrick O'Hara with poison after leading him to believe that he was being given a Covid booster.

The doctor saw the 71-year-old as an obstacle to getting his inheritance as quickly as he wanted to, if anything happened to his mother. It was heard by jurors at Newcastle Crown Court that the doctor allegedly hatched an "extraordinary plot" to murder the pensioner at the home in Newcastle city centre where he lived with his long-term partner.

Chronicle Live reported that prosecutors said the 53-year-old married dad had collected various poisons at his home and researched police guidance on murder investigations. It was also heard that the successful GP had installed software on the couple's computer so he could spy on them before carrying out the "audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight".

He denies attempted murder and the alternative of causing GBH with intent but has admitted administering a noxious substance Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, told jurors: "Sometimes, occasionally perhaps, the truth really is stranger than fiction.

"The case you are about to try, on any view, is an extraordinary case. Mr Thomas Kwan, the defendant in this case, was, in January of this year a respected and experienced medical doctor operating in general practice with a GP’s surgery based in Sunderland.

"From November 2023 at the latest, and probably much much earlier than then, he devised an intricate plan to kill his mother’s long-term partner, a man called Patrick O’Hara. On any view that man had done absolutely nothing to offend Mr Kwan in any way whatsoever. He was however potentially an impediment to Mr Kwan inheriting his mother’s estate upon her death.

"Mr Kwan used his encyclopaedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan. That plan was to disguise himself as a community nurse, attend Mr O’Hara’s address, the home Mr O’Hara shared with the defendant’s mother, and inject him with a dangerous poison under the pretext of administering a covid booster injection.

"It was a very carefully planned scheme; it involved Mr Kwan forging NHS documentation to lure Mr O’Hara into his plan; it involved him adopting a personal disguise to shield his identity from his victim and his mother; it involved him falsifying number plates on his car to try to evade detection; and using false details to book into a local hotel to use as the base for his operation.

"It was an audacious plan, it was a plan to murder a man in plain sight, to murder a man right in front of his own mother’s eyes, that man’s life partner.”

The court heard that at the time of the offence in January this year, Mr O'Hara had been in a relationship with Kwan's mother, Wai King Leung, known as Jenny Leung, for more than 20 years and they lived at St Thomas Street, Newcastle. Relations between Kwan and his mum were said to be strained, partly caused by his "sense of entitlement" to inheritance.

The effect of the Mrs Leung's will was that the property would not go to her children until after Mr O’Hara’s death. Kwan, his sister and Mr O'Hara were executors and trustees of the will.

Mr Makepeace said that in early November 2023, a year after Mr O'Hara’s last contact with Kwan, he got a letter apparently from the NHS, which was faked by Kwan. He said: "That letter was utterly convincing. Its use of medical terminology, its deployment of NHS hyperlinks and data protection privacy notices etc gave it a chilling authenticity. The letter was in fact a total fake, it was authored by Mr Kwan on his home computer, he had carefully copied and pasted the NHS logo.

"This letter was the first outward sign of the terrible scheme Mr Kwan had been planning to execute. The nature of that plan and methodology of that plan was cemented by this date."

In early January 2024 Mr O’Hara received a second fake letter, offering him a home visit on January 22. Mr Makepeace said: "As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr O’Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker, he had not the slightest suspicion that this was anything other than a genuine NHS community care initiative which he warmly welcomed and was grateful for."

In the early hours of Monday January 22, Kwan left home in Ingelby Barwick in a Toyota Yaris which prosecutors say had been fitted with false registration plates. He arrived at The Gate car park at 2.31am and booked into The Premier Inn under the name John Chan.

At around 7.10am he went for breakfast, returning to his room about 20 minutes later. Mr Makepeace said: "Two hours later he left his hotel room again. He was now dressed very differently. He was wearing a long coat and a flat cap. He had blue surgical gloves on his hands and a clinical mask covering his face even as he left his room, traversed the hotel lobby and exited the hotel. He can be seen to be carrying a satchel like bag. He had plainly disguised himself, and of course he needed to.

"What he is about to do he is going to do in front of his own mother, to a man he knew and who knew him."

He then walked to his mother's home, arriving at 9.36am. Mr O'Hara described the man he believed to be a nurse as covered from head to toe and wearing surgical gloves and a mask. He was also wearing tinted spectacles.

Mr O'Hara was taken through a medical questionnaire and had his blood pressure checked and some blood taken. The court heart Kwan even took his mother blood pressure, at her request. Mr Makepeace said: "Throughout, she was oblivious to the fact the man she thought to be a stranger administering to her, was in fact her son."

He then said he would give Mr O'Hara a covid booster, at which point he felt immediate pain and Kwan quickly left. Mr Makepeace said: "As he left the home, Ms. Leung came downstairs again and commented in passing that the nurse had been the same height as her son. Upon that comment, and for the first time, Mr O’Hara began to suspect something was very wrong."

The pain in his arm increased and he was given antibiotics and painkillers at the RVI and sent home. When he awoke the next morning he found his arm was blistering and seriously discoloured. His GP sent him back to the hospital immediately, suspecting possible sepsis.

Doctors were baffled as to the cause of what they realised was a rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease. He had surgery to try to stem the spread of the infection by cutting away "very considerable portions" diseased flesh on his arm in repeated procedures. Mr O’Hara ended up in intensive care for weeks.

Meanwhile a police investigation had begun and Kwan was traced on CCTV leaving his mother's home, heading back to the hotel then eventually home, having stopped for something to eat at Greggs. He was arrested and his home was searched and Mr Makepeace said: "A great many items of interest were recovered, and it quickly became apparent his administration of poison to Mr O’Hara on the 22nd of January was not an isolated, momentary, aberration but the finale of a very careful plan and the culmination of a deeply disturbing, long term, interest bordering on obsession, that Mr Kwan had with poisons and chemical toxins and their use in killing human beings.

"Of most concern was a search of the detached garage premises close to the house. Here, police found an array of chemicals of a toxic, corrosive or flammable, hazardous nature including, most notably perhaps, liquid mercury, thallium, sulphuric acid and arsenic."

The medical and scientific findings do not allow certainty about what poison was administered. Kwan later said it was iodomethane, which is sometimes called methyl iodide and is commonly called “Mel”, which is used predominantly as a fumigant pesticide.

Police recovered various items from a hard drive at Kwan's home, including a video about how to produce iodomethane, a PDF copy of police guidance on murder investigations and a fake ID document showing Kwan in disguise.

Mr Makepeace said: "Amongst the very disturbing findings from the trawl of Mr Kwan’s computers and digital storage devices was the eventual realisation that Mr Kwan had placed spyware onto a computer owned by his mother, kept at St Thomas Street and used by Ms Leung and Mr O’Hara.

"The spyware allowed him to monitor in real time emails sent and received by that device, searches undertaken on the device andeven image captures of the user of the computer through the digital camera integrated into the device. That little camera which we all assume is inert unless we activate it, was used by Mr Kwan to monitor and watch Ms Leung and Mr O’Hara as they went about their legitimate day to day life on that computer, of course believing themselves to be acting in private. He had scores of still images of such captures as well as detailed copies of emails and search results captured through such spyware, stored on his own computer.

"In particular Mr Kwan was monitoring Ms Leung’s financial dealings, supporting we suggest, the inevitable conclusion that this intended murder was motivated by financial gain, no matter how irrational that was."

Mr Makepeace told jurors the central issue they must decide is Kwan's intent when he injected a toxin into Mr O'Hara.

Kwan, of Brading Court, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tees, denies attempted murder and the alternative charge of causing GBH with intent. He has pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance.

The trial continues.