In a UK court today, a “respected” British doctor admitted that he attempted to murder his mother’s partner using a counterfeit Covid jab laced with poison.
Dr. Thomas Kwan was charged with the attempted murder of Patrick O’Hara, 72, as the doctor feared he’d lose his inheritance in his mother’s will. Kwan reversed his plea, admitting to experimenting with various harmful substances, including Castor beans for ricin production, to murder O’Hara.
The 53-year-old doctor finally settled on a fake “Covid jab” to do the job, but initially told the court he meant to ‘do harm’ but not kill.
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Surveillance footage shows the ‘doctor’ checking into a hotel before donning a disguise (
Northumbria Police.)
On January 22 of this year, Kwan disguised himself to inject Mr O’Hara, then 71, his mother Jenny Leung’s partner of two decades, with an untraceable poison at their residence.
He purchased a range of hazardous chemicals, concealing his actions using the Happy House surgery in Sunderland, where he was employed as a general practitioner. He also used a bogus research company, Azxon UK Ltd, as a “front,” according to prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC.
Makepeace detailed how Kwan sent Mr. O’Hara two counterfeit NHS letters from a “community nurse” named Raj Patel, a former colleague of Kwan’s, and even created a fake ID featuring a wig, mustache, glasses, and goatee beard. Makepeace stated: “Very considerable portions of Mr O’Hara’s arm flesh had to be removed in repeated procedures.”
Five days after the attack, Mr O’Hara was given another NHS-style letter detailing his blood test results prior to the jab, as per the jury. The police intercepted a package intended for Mr. O’Hara containing over-the-counter iron supplements, which the prosecution alleges were sent by the defendant.
Detectives also interviewed him a few days after the incident.
Police mug shot of Dr. Kwan in his disguise (
Northumbria Police.)
Dr Kwan without his disguise (
Northumbria Police)
The jury was presented with CCTV footage of Kwan arriving at the Premier Inn, close to his mother’s residence in Newcastle, before he donned a surgical mask, gloves, hat, and dark-tinted glasses to administer the harmful substance to Mr. O’Hara. The court heard that it was believed to be iodomethane (c), a pesticide that had never been used on a human before.
Mr O’Hara grew suspicious when Jenny noted that the nurse was “about the same height” as her son. As he opened the case, Mr Makepeace KC told the jury: “Sometimes, occasionally perhaps, the truth really is stranger than fiction.”
“The case you are about to try, on any view, is an extraordinary case. Mr Thomas Kwan, the defendant, was, in January of this year, a respected and experienced medical doctor in general practice with a GP’s surgery based in Sunderland. From November 2023 at the latest, and probably long before then, he devised an intricate plan to kill his mother’s long-term partner, a man called Patrick O’Hara,” continued the prosecutor.
The prosecutor detailed the chilling scenario: “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 mother’s estate upon her death. Mr Kwan used his encyclopedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan.”
Further elaborating on the sinister plot: “That plan was to disguise himself as a community nurse, attend Mr. O’Hara’s address, the home he shared with the defendant’s mother, and inject him with a dangerous poison under the pretext of administering a Covid booster injection.”
A medical expert, Dr. Steven Emmett, was summoned by the authorities to pinpoint the toxic substance employed, explaining that ‘no recorded medical case of any human being injected with iodomethane’ existed before.
The evidence presented to the jury included the fake ID for ‘Raj Patel,’ the false identity Kwan used while impersonating an NHS nurse. Investigators also discovered “comprehensive lists” of poisons, complete with instructions for use, at Kwan’s residence, specifying the required dosages to kill an individual.
Upon Kwan’s admission of guilt to the attempted murder charge, Justice Lambert, presiding over the court proceedings, warned him to brace for a ‘substantial custodial sentence.’
The sentencing was postponed for additional reports, with expectations set for Thursday, October 17, as confirmed by the judge. Decked in a grey sweatshirt, Kwan displayed no visible reaction after the jury delivered the guilty verdict on the attempted murder count.