A respected English doctor allegedly disguised himself as a nurse to inject his mother's partner with a "flesh-eating" poison under the pretense of administering a COVID-19 booster shot, according to a report.
Dr. Thomas Kwan, of Sunderland, England, is accused of planning out and executing an elaborate and lethal scheme to eliminate a perceived obstacle to his inheritance.
Kwan, 53, had previously falsified documents from the NHS, a fake company, and sent them to his mother's partner, Patrick O'Hara O'Hara, to schedule a home visit, according to court documents obtained by BBC.
On the day in question, Kwan arrived at the couple's home in North Yorkshire, England, where he posed as a community nurse to gain medical proximity to O'Hara.
During the visit, Kwan checked the blood pressure of his mother, Wai King Leung, also known as Jenny Leung, and O'Hara. Soon after, he administered a toxic injection to O'Hara's arm. Almost immediately, he experienced severe pain.
Despite being dressed in a long coat, hat, and mask, Kwan's mother mentioned to her partner that the nurse was the same height as her son. Realizing something was amiss, O'Hara quickly contacted his doctor and went to a nearby hospital.
There, doctors diagnosed him with necrotizing fasciitis, a "rare, life-threatening flesh-eating disease," according to the court documents obtained by BBC. O'Hara survived the attack, but was confined to intensive care for weeks.
Kwan had been estranged from his mother for many years prior to the incident over disagreements about her will. In it, Leung's property was bequeathed to her long-term partner of 20 years, Patrick O'Hara, 71.
As a co-executor of his mother's will, Kwan is believed by prosecutors to have been motivated by the potential for financial gain to commit this crime.
"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," Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC told jurors, according to Chronicle Live.
Following the attack, Kwan was detained and arrested. Investigators searched his home and found several toxic substances. Police say they also found spyware that Kwan was using to monitor the couple's laptop.
"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," Makepeace said. "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."
Kwan denied trying to murder O'Hara, but pleaded guilty to administering a poisonous substance into his arm. According to court documents, Kwan only meant to cause O'Hara "no more than mild pain and discomfort."
The attempted murder trial is ongoing at the Newcastle Crown Court in Tyne, England.
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