Disguised GP 'tried to kill' his mum's partner in front of her with fake Covid jab

Dr Thomas Kwan allegedy dressed as a community nurse, went and administered the poisonous injection then went bac to a hotel room, stopping at Greggs to get food on the way

A GP dressed as a community nurse then injected his mother's partner with poison in an attempt to kill him, a court was told. Dr Thomas Kwan covered himself from head to toe so he could not be recognised then carried out the "audacious" murder attempt.

He then went back to a hotel room, stopping at Greggs for food on the way, leaving his unsuspecting victim deteriorating rapidly. Prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court how married Kwan, 53, saw his mother's partner of 20 years, Patrick O'Hara, as a stumbling block to him getting his inheritance after her death, reports Chronicle Live.

He came upon with an "extraordinary plot" to murder the 71-year-old at his mother's home in Thomas Street, Newcastle. He amassed a collection of poisons at his home, researched police guidance on murder investigation and installed software on the couple's computer enabling him to spy on them before carrying out his plan.

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."

He told the court that Kwan was, in January of this year, a respected doctor working from a Sunderland GP’s surgery. But in November 2023 at the latest, "and probably much much earlier than then" he came up with his plan to kill Mr O’Hara.

His potential victim "had done absolutely nothing to offend Mr Kwan in any way" but was potentially "an impediment to Mr Kwan inheriting his mother, Jenny Leung’s, estate upon her death." Under his mother's will the property would not go to her children until after Mr O’Hara’s death.

Mr Makepeace told the court: "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.”

Mr Makepeace said in early November 2023, a year after Kwan's last contact with his victim, Mr O'Hara 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."

Then in early January this year the victim received a second fake letter, which offered 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."

It was in the early hours of Monday, January 22, Kwan left his home in Ingleby Barwick Stockton in a Toyota Yaris, allegedly fitted with false number plates. He went to a Premier Inn and booked in under the name of John Chan where he had breakfast before returning to his room, reappearing two hours later disguised in a long coat, flat cap and wearing a clinical mask and surgical gloves.

Mr Makepeace said: "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 went to his mother's home arriving at 9.36am. Mr O'Hara believed him to be a nurse "covered from head to toe and wearing surgical gloves and a mask. He was also wearing tinted spectacles".

Kwan took his victim through a medical questionnaire then checked his blood pressure and took some blood. The court was told how heart Kwan even took his mother's 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." Kwan then told Mr O'Hara he would give him 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."

Mr O'Hara's pain in his arm increased. He was given antibiotics and painkillers at the Royal Victoria Infirmary before being sent home. However the following morning his arm was blistering and seriously discoloured and he was sent back to the hospital by his GP concerned it might be sepsis.

Doctors were confused over the cause until they finally realised was a rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease. Mr O'Hara underwent surgery to try to stop the infection from spreading and had "very considerable portions" of dead flesh on his arm cut away in repeated procedures and spent weeks in intensive care.

A police investigation was launched and Kwan was seen CCTV leaving his mother's home, returning to the hotel before going home, having stopped for something to eat at Greggs. He was arrested, his home searched and "a great many items of interest were recovered".

Mr Makepeace told the hearing: "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."

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 and even 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.