A respected community GP has admitted an extraordinary plot to kill his mothers partner by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a fake Covid booster jab following an inheritance dispute.
Thomas Kwan, 53, was on trial at Newcastle Crown Court and had initially denied attempted murder, but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him.
Police initially thought the married father-of-one used the chemical weapon ricin to try to kill Patrick OHara, 72, at his mothers home in St Thomas Street, Newcastle, on January 22, but an expert believed a pesticide was more likely.
Kwan sparked a major emergency services operation when police found lethal chemicals stored in the detached garage at his £300,000 home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.
The Sunderland-based GP had already pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, claiming he meant to cause no more than mild pain.
Thomas Kwan, 53, was on trial at Newcastle Crown Court and had initially denied attempted murder, but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him
Kwan, 53, a partner at a surgery in Sunderland, is seen in CCTV footage arriving at a Premier Inn in Newcastle wearing a heavy disguise
The GP, who wore a hat, tinted spectacles, gloves and a surgical mask, is seen checking into the hotel
The Crowns case was that he meant to kill his mothers partner of more than 20 years, who developed a rare flesh-eating disease as a result of the jab in his arm.
The Hong Kong-born doctor had developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons, the court heard, and he studied how to get away with murder, police discovered from analysis of his home computers.
Opening the case on Thursday, Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said: Mr Thomas Kwan, the defendant in the case, was in January of this year a respected and experienced medical doctor in general practice with a GPs surgery based in Sunderland.
From November 2023 at the latest, and probably long before then, he devised an intricate plan to kill his mothers long-term partner, a man called Patrick OHara.
On any view, that man had done absolutely nothing to offend Mr Kwan in any way whatsoever.
He was, however, a potential impediment to Mr Kwan inheriting his mothers estate upon her death.
Mr Kwan used his encyclopaedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan.
That plan was to disguise himself as a community nurse, attend Mr OHaras address, the home he shared with the defendants mother, and inject him with a dangerous poison under the pretext of administering a Covid booster injection.
Kwan forged NHS documentation to set up the home visit, disguised himself, used false number plates for the journey to Newcastle and booked in to a city centre hotel using a false name.
Emergency services outside Kwans £300,000 home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, earlier this year
Police officers were seen carrying boxes of evidence away from the large property
Kwan getting out of his car (middle) after arriving at the underground car park in Newcastle on the day of the attempted murder
The GP, who carried a large bag, is seen making his way up the stairs
Kwans mother, Jenny Leung, named Mr OHara in her will to the effect that he could stay in her house in St Thomas Street, Newcastle, should she die before her partner.
That decision led to her having a strained relationship with her son, so much so that the police were called when Kwan burst into her home uninvited in November 2022.
Kwan was money-obsessed, jurors heard, even installing spyware on his mothers laptop so he could secretly monitor her finances.
Last November, Kwan wrote to Mr OHara claiming to be a community nurse called Raj Patel and offered him a home visit.
Mr Makepeace said: As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr OHara fell for it hook, line and sinker, he had not the slightest suspicion that this was anything other than a genuine NHS community care initiative which he warmly welcomed and was grateful for.
Kwan went to his mothers house in a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves and wearing a medical mask and tinted glasses, and carried out a 45-minute examination on Mr OHara, and even checked his unsuspecting mothers blood pressure when she asked.
Kwan, in what the court heard was broken English with an Asian accent, told Mr OHara he needed a Covid booster, even though he had only had one three months ago.
Mr OHara shouted in pain when it was administered and Kwan quickly packed his equipment and left, reassuring his victim that a reaction was not uncommon.
A close up of the doctors face as he was walking up the stairs without a mask om
A heavily disguised Kwan walking into his room after checking in
He later walked across Newcastle and arrived at his mothers home at around 10am, introducing himself as the expected nurse
The pain continued and Mr OHara began to suspect something had gone badly wrong.
The next day his arm had blistered and was seriously discoloured and medics at hospital were baffled.
He had developed the flesh-eating disease necrotising fasciitis and needed to have part of his arm cut away to stop it spreading, and spent several weeks in intensive care.
The fake nurses movements were traced using CCTV and police were able to identify Kwan as a suspect.
A photo dated February 2024 showing emergency services outside Kwans home
A large forensic tent was erected in the garden of the property
Searches of his home in the executive estate where he lived revealed an array of chemicals such as arsenic and liquid mercury as well as castor beans which can be used to make the chemical weapon ricin.
Police found a recipe for ricin on his computer but Ministry of Defence poisons expert Professor Steven Emmett, although still not sure which poison was used, thought iodomethane which is commonly used in pesticides, was more likely.