Twisted GP pleads GUILTY to trying to kill mum’s lover with poison jab after donning disguise to pose as Covid nurse
A TWISTED GP has admitted trying to kill his mum’s lover with a poison injection after posing as a Covid nurse.
Dr Thomas Kwan, 53, wore a bizarre fake beard and hairpiece as part of an “audacious” plan to murder Patrick O’Hara.
The GP wanted to inherit mum Jenny Leung’s estate but the pair had fallen out over her plans to leave her home to Patrick instead.
Patrick, 71, was lucky to survive after the toxin caused a “rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease”.
Kwan denied attempted murder but today dramatically changed his plea on the second day of his trial.
He previously admitted injecting Patrick with a poison but claimed he meant to inflict “no more than mild pain and discomfort”.
Prosecutor Mr Peter Makepeace KC said it was an “extraordinary case” and told jurors: “Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.”
Newcastle Crown Court heard Kwan had been collecting dangerous chemicals including liquid mercury, sulphuric acid and arsenic in the build-up to the horror.
He had also prepared letters with a “chilling authenticity” from a made-up NHS department called the Community Associated Nursing team.
His stepdad fell for the letter “hook, line and sinker”, the court was told.
On January 22 this year, Kwan left his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, in his Toyota Yaris fitted with false plates.
He was then spotted on CCTV checking into a Premier Inn in Newcastle under a false name as the murder plot got underway.
Footage showed him a few hours later leaving the hotel in a disguise including a long coat, surgical gloves and a face mask.
The court was told he travelled to Patrick’s home and said he was from the NHS using a “broken English accent”.
He then told the pensioner he was going to give him a Covid booster injection.
His plan was so successful even Kwan’s mum was “oblivious” to the fact the so-called nurse was her son.
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC said: “Immediately Mr O’Hara felt a terrible pain and jumped back. He shouted, ‘bloody Hell’ and explained the immediate and intense pain, but the nurse reassured him.
“From that point forward, the nurse began to noticeably speed up his departure, packing up his equipment and leaving the premises in something of a rush.
“As he left the home, Ms. Leung came downstairs again and commented 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. He went out into the street to see if he could catch the nurse up and get some reassurance.
“He was too late out into the street and could find no trace of the nurse. He returned home to find the pain in his arm increasing.”
Doctors discovered he was suffering from necrotising fasciitis – a “rare, life-threatening flesh-eating disease”.
Patrick needed multiple surgeries to remove “very considerable portions” of his arm.
Kwan was arrested two weeks later and cops uncovered the full extent of his murder plot.
Officers also found castor oil beans in his garage and a recipe for manufacturing ricin from the beans.
A MoD chemical weapons expert was brought in but was unable to establish exactly which poison was used to inject the victim.
Kwan, who had an “encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons”, had grown “obsessed” with money and his inheritance before hatching the sinister plan.
He had become estranged from his mum, who had been in relationship with Patrick for more than 20 years.
Kwan was warned he faces a significant sentence when he returns to court next Thursday.