Thomas Kwan: GP disguised himself as nurse to allegedly try and kill mum’s partner with fake COVID jab

A GP disguised himself as a nurse and tried to kill his mother’s partner with a fake COVID jab laced with poison, a court has been told.

Thomas Kwan, 53, who has an “encyclopaedic knowledge” of toxins, is said to have researched making ricin and collected an array of the deadliest substances at home before carrying out the “attack”.

It left Patrick O’Hara, the 71-year-old partner of Kwan’s mother Jenny Leung, fighting for his life.

Newcastle Crown Court was told his motive was money as Mr O’Hara was seen as an “impediment” to inheriting his mother’s estate upon her death.

Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC described it as an “extraordinary case” and told the jury: “Sometimes... the truth really is stranger than fiction. 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, that man’s life partner.”

Kwan, a respected doctor who is married with a young son, planted spyware on his mother’s computer to monitor her financial transactions and forged NHS documents to convince Mr O’Hara he had been offered a routine appointment for a COVID vaccine, the court heard.

On the day, Kwan booked a room at a Premier Inn where he put on a coat, flat cap, clinical mask and surgical gloves so he wouldn’t be recognised — even by his mother — and went to the elderly couple’s home pretending to be a community nurse.

He spoke with an Asian accent in broken English, Mr Makepeace said.

He even chatted with his mother and took her blood pressure.

Kwan left hurriedly after giving the painful injection to Mr O’Hara, who began to suspect “something was very wrong”.

Two days later Mr O’Hara was admitted to hospital with the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis and had to have emergency surgery to stop the disease spreading from his arm.

Kwan, who denies attempted murder but has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of administering a noxious substance, later claimed he injected the pesticide iodomethane.

The court heard there is no record of this chemical being injected into a human before, but an expert said it caused an extreme reaction on skin contact and could have caused the injuries suffered by Mr O’Hara.

Mr Makepeace told the jury it was a “life-threatening” poison and “difficult to detect” and they could be sure Kwan “intended to kill Mr O’Hara”.

Kwan admits giving Mr O’Hara the injection but claims it was intended to cause “mild pain and discomfort”.

Police were called by hospital staff while Mr O’Hara was in intensive care.

Detectives found CCTV of the mystery ‘nurse’ leaving the flat in the centre of Newcastle on January 22 and traced his movements back to Kwan’s home 50 miles away in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.

At the time, he was a partner in a GP practice in Sunderland.

Mr O’Hara told police he had a “slight suspicion” the nurse may have been his partner’s son as they were of similar height.

Kwan was arrested but refused to answer police questions.

However, officers searching his home discovered evidence indicating the attack was “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”, Mr Makepeace said.

In his garage, they found castor oil beans and a recipe to make the chemical weapon ricin.

Dr Steven Emmett, a toxicology expert, said he couldn’t say for certain what poison was injected into Mr O’Hara, although he “did not favour ricin”.

The expert said another chemical found in the garage, iodomethane, was a “viable candidate”.

Iodomethane was not easy to identify and had the potential to “frustrate detection and treatment”, Mr Makepeace said.

Material on Kwan’s computer also showed how he faked NHS documents to arrange the vaccine appointment.

A photograph of community nurse ‘Raj Patel’ was in reality Kwan disguised with a wig, beard and moustache and was used for a fake ID in case he was challenged.

The court heard Kwan and his mother had a “strained relationship” for some years.

Mr Makepeace told the jury the “central issue” of the case was whether Kwan intended to kill or cause serious harm. The trial continues.