GP confesses to trying to murder mum's partner in Newcastle city centre in poison Covid jab trick
Dr Thomas Kwan, who was a respected GP in Sunderland, is facing a long prison sentence for trying to murder Patrick O'Hara by injecting him with poison
by Rob Kennedy · ChronicleLiveA GP has dramatically confessed to trying to murder his mum's partner by injecting him with poison after tricking him into thinking he was giving him a Covid booster jab.
Dr Thomas Kwan disguised himself as a community nurse to carry out the audacious plot, which he had spent months meticulously planning, under the noses of his own mother and her long-term partner, Patrick O'Hara, who he saw as an obstacle to receiving his inheritance should anything happen to his mum.
Having tricked 71-year-old Mr O'Hara, with faked NHS letters, into believing he was a nurse attending to administer an injection to protect him, he instead jabbed him with a substance that caused a flesh-eating disease and left him in intensive care. Police then found a disturbing collection of poisons and other material at the Sunderland-based GP's home.
Kwan had been standing trial, having denied attempted murder but he changed his plea and admitted the charge. He now faces a substantial prison sentence.
At Newcastle Crown Court, Mrs Justice Lambert said she requires a pre-sentence report before she can sentence Kwan, to address the issue of dangerousness. A provisional date for sentence was fixed for Thursday October 17.
Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said: “The Crown’s case will remain this was an attempted murder motivated by financial gain.”
Prosecutors say the 53-year-old married dad, had collected various poisons at his home, researched police guidance on murder investigations and 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" at the home of his mother on St Thomas Street, in Newcastle city centre.
Mr Makepeace told jurors last week: "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 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.”
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In the early hours of Monday January 22, Kwan left home in Ingelby Barwick in a Toyota Yaris which had been fitted with false registration plates. He arrived at The Gate car park in Newcastle 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 Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle 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.
Kwan, of Brading Court, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tees, who had previously pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, was further remanded in custody.
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