TEESSIDE GP JAILED FOR 31 YEARS OVER POISON PLOT MURDER BID
A Teesside GP has been jailed for over 31 years after disguising himself as a nurse and poisoning his mother’s partner with a fake Covid jab in a murder bid plot.Obsessed Dr Thomas Kwan previously pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Patrick O’Hara, 72, in an extraordinary plan that was motivated by money and caused his victim to develop a flesh-eating disease.
Mrs Justice Lambert, sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, said: “It was an audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight and you very nearly succeeded in your objective.” At a previous hearing, Mr O’Hara said in his victim statement that he had no idea that Ingleby Barwick's Kwan was the community nurse who administered the fake Covid vaccine during a visit to the home he shared with the defendant’s mother in Newcastle city centre.
The jab caused intense pain, he felt as though his arm was on fire and he felt he should have died.
Mr O’Hara needed weeks of hospital treatment and plastic surgery after having some of the flesh on his arm removed, and said the attack left him “a shell of an individual”.
Kwan, who was obsessed with money and developed a deep knowledge of poisons, planned his murder bid for months by writing fake letters, supposedly from the NHS, offering Mr O’Hara a home visit in January.
The married 53-year-old was motivated by greed after finding out that his mother, Jenny Leung, had made a will which allowed Mr O’Hara to stay in her home should she die before him.
The couple have split up since her son’s attempt on his life.
Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said at a previous hearing: “The motive for this attempt to kill was to remove an impediment to his inheritance.” Kwan, a Sunderland-based GP, refused to tell police which poison he had used as medics tried to save Mr O’Hara.
His victim responded with stoicism to his physical suffering, the court heard, but he has since developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Officers tracked Kwan through CCTV footage to a hotel in the city centre and then to his home on Brading Court in Ingleby Barwick.
In his garage, authorities found an array of dangerous chemicals amassed by Kwan.
On his computer, instructions on how to make ricin, a deadly chemical weapon, were discovered.
Initially, it was thought ricin was used on Mr O’Hara, but a poisons expert suggested iodomethane, used in pesticides, was more likely.
During trial, Kwan changed his plea to guilty after the prosecution presented their case.
Defence lawyer Paul Greaney KC described Kwan as previously of good character who had “ruined his life,” and said his disguise was “amateurish” and “clumsy.” On Wednesday, Kwan was sentenced to 31 years and five months in prison.
Mrs Justice Lambert branded him a “dangerous offender.” The court highlighted Kwan's obsession with money, citing intercepted correspondence from prison in which Kwan wrote about his fears of losing his inheritance if Mr O’Hara claimed compensation, stating: “Mother and elderly man win and take all our hard earned money and home.
We will have nothing.
How can this be justice.” The judge said, “I’ve no doubt the reason you tried to kill Mr O’Hara was for financial gain.”
