Dr Thomas Kwan jailed for trying to kill mum’s partner with poison | UK | News

A GP who disguised himself as a nurse to try to kill his ex-mother’s partner by injecting him with a lethal poison has been jailed for 31 years and five months.

Dr. Thomas Kwan planned to kill Patrick O’Hara because he was afraid of losing his inheritance and came up with a twisted plan to kill him by pretending that the pesticide injection was COVID-19 amplifier.

The medic who spied on the couple via computer became “obsessed” with poisons – experimenting with castor beans to try to make ricin, and also researching arsenic, cyanide and nerve agents. Police subsequently found “10 poisons used to kill people” among downloaded manuals at his home.

Hong Kong-born Kwan, 53, put fake number plates on his car and then drove to a Newcastle hotel where he was captured on CCTV wearing a hat, tinted glasses and a mask. He went to his mother’s house to administer a potentially lethal injection, disguising himself so effectively that she did not recognize him.

Within seconds of being hit, O’Hara, 72, screamed and became seriously ill with a painful flesh-eating disease and had to undergo emergency life-saving surgery.

Jailing Kwan at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Lambert said: “It was a daring plan to kill a man in plain sight and you almost achieved your goal.”

The judge said the medic had a “morbid obsession” with toxic chemicals and demonstrated “distorted thinking”, a “sense of entitlement” and a “capacity for extreme behavior to satisfy his own needs”.

She added: “You were of course obsessed with money and, in particular, money to which you felt entitled.

“With your disguise, you have struck at the very heart of public confidence in the health care profession.”

Mr O’Hara, a retired environmental analyst, said he was left a “shell” by the devastating effects of the iodomethane injection by the already wealthy father of one Kwan.

He miraculously escaped after emergency surgery, but was left with terrible scars.

when the blow caused necrotizing, flesh-eating fasciitis to eat away parts of his arm.

He was subsequently struck down by debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder, causing him to hallucinate images of Kwan’s face, have horrific memories of the injection, and experience hair loss.

After the attacker was sentenced on Wednesday, he said: “I think justice has been done.

“As a result of these incidents, I was left as a shell of a person.

“I suffer from extreme fatigue and every time I change my clothes I am aware of the disfigurement of my arm, which is an eternal memory of the attack on me, and this has also shaken my self-confidence.

“I honestly feel like I’ve been to hell and back. Thomas will never understand or know what it means to suffer as I have.”

Kwan initially denied attempted murder when his trial began on October 3, but changed his plea to guilty after the prosecution opened the case.

Kwan had fallen out with his mother Jenny Leung over her plan to leave the house to Mr O’Hara, with whom she had been in a relationship for more than 20 years. This sparked a bitter row in November 2022 when O’Hara called 999 and Kwan was given a warning by police.

But Kwan, then a partner at the Happy House clinic in Sunderland, returned to his £300,000 family home in Ingleby Barwick on Teesside to hatch the deadly plot.

He gained O’Hara’s trust by ridiculing NHS letters and even created a fake ID that showed him with dark make-up on his face, a wig and a beard.

Neither Mr O’Hara nor Kwan’s mother recognized him when he gave the near-lethal injection at their home in Newcastle city centre.

Kwan, who earned £140,000 a year as a family GP, was already a man of “considerable wealth” who made an offer on a house in the south of England for £2 million.

O’Hara’s 21-year relationship with Leung ended after her son attacked him.

Prosecutors said his attacks to ensure there were no delays in receiving his inheritance were motivated not by necessity but by “greed for greed’s sake.”

Christopher Atkinson, head of the North East Crown Prosecution Service’s integrated case management unit, said: “Kwan’s attempt on the life of Patrick O’Hara, although unsuccessful, left his victim with life-changing injuries.

“As a result of necrotizing fasciitis caused by the chemical, a significant amount of soft tissue around the injection site had to be surgically removed.

“As well as the physical consequences, this incident also caused psychological trauma to Mr O’Hara, with a direct consequence of serious mental health impacts.

“The Crown has always believed that Kwan’s horrific actions were motivated by financial greed. When Kwan’s mother withdrew his financial support, he felt that hurting Mr. O’Hara would be a way to get revenge.

“He also saw O’Hara as a barrier between himself and part of his inheritance, which he desperately wanted to remove.

“We welcome the judge’s finding that Thomas Kwan is dangerous. This finding recognizes that Kwan remains a significant risk of causing serious harm to others, which is reflected accordingly in his sentence.”

“Our thoughts remain with Patrick O’Hara at this continuing difficult time, and we sincerely hope that the fact that the perpetrator of this horrific plot is in prison today will bring him some comfort.”

Det Inspector Jason Henry, of Northumbria Police, said: “Thomas Kwan’s actions were completely despicable, but the weight of evidence he was faced with was overwhelming.

“Although the attempt on the life of his victim was fortunately unsuccessful, the consequences were still catastrophic.”