A GP who disguised himself as a nurse and poisoned his mother’s partner with a fake Covid jab in an “audacious” plot to murder him has been jailed for 31 years.
Sunderland-based Dr Thomas Kwan, 53, admitted trying to kill Patrick O’Hara in an extraordinary plan that left the 72-year-old with a rare flesh-eating disease.
He had initially denied the charge of attempted murder but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him at Newcastle Crown Court last month.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 31 years and five months behind bars by Judge Ms Justice Lambert, who said: “It was an audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight and you very nearly succeeded in your objective.’’
The judge said Kwan tricked his victim and his estranged mother using “good forgeries” of NHS letters, adding: “By your masquerading, you struck at the heart of public confidence in the health care profession.”
She said there was “no doubt” he plotted to kill Mr O’Hara for financial gain over the inheritance he felt entitled to.
“You knew that your mother had left the house at St Thomas Street to her children, but you also knew that she had changed her will to give Mr O’Hara a life interest in the house,” the judge said.
“By killing him you would have removed the obstacle which lay between you and your immediate recovery of your share in the property following your mother’s death in the event of her pre-deceasing him.”
At a previous hearing, the victim said the fake vaccination administered in January caused intense pain, making it seem as though his arm was on fire, and that he felt he should have died.
Mr O’Hara needed weeks of hospital treatment after developing a flesh-eating disease which required plastic surgery and he 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 this year.
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 refused to tell police which poison he had used as medics battled to save Mr O’Hara.
His victim had responded with stoicism to his physical suffering, the court heard, but he has since developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Officers scoured CCTV and were able to track Kwan, still disguised as a nurse, back to a city centre hotel and then to his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.
In his garage, they discovered an array of dangerous chemicals which the GP had amassed. On his computer, they found instructions on how to make the chemical weapon ricin.
It was first thought he had used ricin on Mr O’Hara but a poisons expert said iodomethane, which is used in pesticides, was more likely.
During the trial last month, Paul Greaney KC, defending, said the GP was previously of positive good character and had “ruined his life”. He described Kwan’s disguise, when he passed himself off as a nurse, as “amateurish” and “clumsy”.
The judge found Kwan still posed a risk to Mr O’Hara and his own mother and imposed a restraining order preventing the GP from contacting his victim.
Outside court, Christopher Atkinson, head of the Complex Casework Unit for CPS North East, said: “The crown’s case has always been that Kwan’s horrific actions were motivated by financial greed. When Kwan’s mother withdrew her financial support of him, he felt that harming Mr O’Hara would be a way of getting revenge.
“He also saw Mr O’Hara as a barrier between himself and part of his inheritance, one which he wanted desperately to remove.
“We welcome the judge’s finding of Thomas Kwan’s dangerousness. This finding recognises that Kwan still poses a significant risk of serious harm to others, which is appropriately reflected in the sentence passed on him.”
