Reason why GP tried to murder mother's partner with fake Covid jab

A GP who tried to murder his mother's partner with a fake Covid jab was jailed for more than 31 years today as new details were revealed about his motive for the 'audacious plan.' 

The judge said Dr Thomas Kwan, 53, had 'struck at the heart of public confidence in the healthcare profession' by his 'masquerade' in setting up a home booster jab appointment, disguising himself as a community nurse and injecting a poison that almost killed Patrick O'Hara, 72.

The money obsessed GP saw Mr O'Hara as an impediment to his inheritance and the judge also disclosed today how he felt his mother had cheated him out of his rightful inheritance as the eldest child on the death of his wealthy father.

Mr O'Hara broke down as he left the court. He thanked doctors and nurses at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and asked about the sentence, he replied: 'I believe that justice has been done.'

Kwan, a married father-of-one, was a man of considerable means with earnings of £140,000 a year and he had put in an offer on a house for £2 million.

Yet the court heard he was willing to murder to bolster his bank account further.

Mrs Justice Lambert said his relationship with mother Jenny Leung was 'strained and difficult' for many years.

It 'worsened when your mother divorced your father 27 years ago,' she said.

She told Newcastle Crown Court: 'Your mother had, you said, withdrawn £1 million from the joint account which she held with your father and had then forced him to divorce her.

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'In Chinese culture you said that it was usual for the eldest child to receive the largest proportion of the financial proceeds of a parent's will.

'However, when your father died your younger brother received the largest proportion. You considered this to be unfair.'

Kwan, originally from Hong Kong, wrote a letter to his mother a year before the poison bid in which he referred to her 'having stolen money from your father and family and told her you had never given up your rights to your inheritance,' the judge said.

He wrote: 'You say that I am selfish or greedy, but I would like you to make me the sole executor of your will, as well as giving me the most and largest proportion of the properties and inheritance as... you have told me many times that I am the one you love the most out of all children.'

In his trial the court heard how Mr O'Hara had a life interest in Ms Leung's flat in Newcastle and had the legal right to live there after Ms Leung's death – thereby preventing it from being sold to the benefit of her children.

Kwan pleaded guilty to attempted murder after hearing the prosecution case against him.

He was jailed for 31 years and five months and the judge imposed a restraining order to prevent him contacting Mr O'Hara, who is still battling the aftermath of the attack that left him fighting for life with the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis.

In his victim impact statement Mr O'Hara said he had been left 'a shell of an individual' by the ordeal and had been 'to hell and back.'

The court heard Kwan had an encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons, researched making the deadly chemical ricin before opting to inject his victim with a little-known pesticide that was difficult to treat.

It was two years in planning and he went to great lengths to forge NHS documents and convince Mr O'Hara he was having a routine Covid booster at home.

Kwan disguised himself with a hat, mask and coat and even took his mother's blood pressure without her realising who he was.

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However, days later when hospital doctors realised he had been poisoned, police using CCTV and other technology tracked the 'nurse' and traced him back to Kwan's home.

After the case Detective Chief Inspector Jason Henry of Northumbria Police praised the victim and said now Kwan has been jailed Mr O'Hara 'can begin to move on with his life.'

A body-worn camera shows police's dawn raid on Kwan's home, after they swooped when he had injected O'Hara with a pesticide.

Callous Kwan looks the picture of calm as he answers the door in his striped pyjamas and woolly hat.

And once inside his face barely even registers a flicker when the officers tell him they are there to arrest him.

The successful GP set up an appointment to offer Mr O'Hara a booster jab using fake NHS documents and went to his mother's flat in Newcastle disguised in a hat, mask and coat - pretending to be a nurse called Raj Patel. 

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A few days after he was injected with the pesticide, Mr O'Hara was admitted to hospital and was diagnosed with  necrotising fasciitis in his left arm.

Kwan chose the poison iodomethane, which is used in pesticides, as it would be difficult for medics to detect, the judge said. 

Recalling his ordeal in court, Mr O'Hara said the jab caused 'excruciating pain', and led to him being in hospital for five weeks for a series of operations. 

Surgeons cut away large sections of his arm to halt the disease and he underwent two skin grafts to move skin from his thigh to his arm.

After initially recovering he recently relapsed dramatically, losing all his hair and suffering complications including fatigue, weight loss and hallucinations. 

He told the court last month: 'Overall, this incident should have been the end of me. The nature of what occurred to my body has left me speechless.

'Had it not been for medical intervention I am positive that not only would I have lost my left arm but my life as well.'

Mrs Justice Lambert told the defendant today: 'You were certainly obsessed by money and more particularly, the money to which you considered yourself entitled.

'No doubt you tried to kill Mr O'Hara for financial gain.'

Details of the 'strained and difficult' relationship between the poisoner and his mother emerged, as the judge said there might well have been 'bad blood' between the pair going back to Kwan's childhood.

Kwan gave his mother, Jenny Leung, a laptop computer in 2020.

Unbeknownst to her, Kwan had installed spyware on it so he could check her financial dealings, and watch her home life on its camera.

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And on one occasion Kwan burst into his mother and Mr O'Hara's home in central Newcastle to pester her about finances, causing her to call the police. 

Officers gave Kwan a warning about his future conduct but Ms Leung did not want to damage his medical career by taking the matter further.

The judge told him: 'Following this incident contact between you and your mother was minimal and only indirect.

'But even following your arrest, intercepted correspondence from you to your wife demonstrated a continued interest in your mother's finances.

'You referred to your mother and her partner taking all of "our hard-earned money and home".'

Kwan's obsession with money led him to try to murder Mr O'Hara in the audacious plot, the judge said. 

Mrs Justice Lambert added: 'You described your mother as being "money obsessed".

'Whether she was or not I do not know. You however were certainly obsessed by money and more particularly by the money to which you considered yourself to be entitled.

'I have no doubt that the reason why you tried to kill Mr O'Hara was for financial gain.

'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.

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GP who attempted to murder his mother's partner with a poisoned fake Covid vaccine jab is jailed

'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.'

She added: 'Whatever the deep-rooted cause, by 2024 and well before, your resentment and bitterness towards your mother and Mr O'Hara was all to do with money and your belief you were not being given money which you thought you were entitled to.' 

Assessing his dangerousness, the judge told Kwan he displayed 'distorted thinking', a sense of entitlement and a 'capacity for most extreme behaviour in order to meet your own needs'.

The judge said he had a 'morbid obsession' with toxic chemicals.

Mr O'Hara previously said despite a career as an environment analyst, working in buildings with asbestos, he had been in good health until tricked into having a Covid booster at home in January.

Mr O'Hara said that day 'my life completely changed forever.'

He said: 'I had never in my life felt anything that painful before [when the needle went in his arm]. I instantly thought that something had gone wrong.'

Mr O'Hara trusted the nurse's opinion that it was 'an allergic reaction' and never suspected he was his partner's son Thomas in disguise.

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The judge said Mr O'Hara read his victim statement with 'great dignity and composure' at the last hearing.

'It was clear to me that he has been transformed from a tough, stoical person that he was before the act,' Mrs Justice Lambert said.

'His emotional reaction is due in part to his disbelief that this terrible act could be perpetrated by the son of his partner under the guise of a trusted health professional.' 

The judge found Thomas Kwan still posed a risk to Patrick O'Hara and his own mother.

She 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: 'Kwan's attempt on the life of Patrick O'Hara, while unsuccessful, has left his victim with life-changing injuries.

'As a result of the necrotising fasciitis caused by the chemical, significant amounts of soft tissue had to be surgically removed from around the site of the injection.

'Beyond the physical effects, this incident has also been psychologically traumatic for Mr O'Hara, whose mental health has been significantly impacted as a direct result.

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'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.'

'Our thoughts remain with Patrick O'Hara at what remains a difficult time, and we sincerely hope that seeing the perpetrator of this horrific plot jailed today provides some measure of comfort to him.'