Disguised GP jailed for inheritance row poisoning

A GP who disguised himself and injected his mother's partner with a poison in a row over an inheritance has been jailed.

Thomas Kwan, 53, was posing as a community nurse giving a coronavirus booster jab when he injected Patrick O'Hara, 71, with a toxin in Newcastle in January.

Mr O'Hara, who contracted a life-threatening flesh-eating disease which caused horrific injuries, previously told Newcastle Crown Court he had become a "shell" of himself.

Kwan, who admitted attempted murder after the first day of his trial, was jailed for 31 years and five months.

The GP, who worked at Happy House Surgery in Sunderland, spent months planning the "audacious" attack, prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC said.

He was "obsessed" with money and was angry his mother Wai King Leung, also known as Jenny Leung, had created a will in 2021 granting her partner of 21 years a share in her Newcastle home, the court heard.

Kwan, a wealthy doctor who lived in a large detached home in Ingleby Barwick with his wife and young son, was motivated purely by greed, Mr Makepeace said.

The doctor had installed spyware on his mother's computer years earlier to track her finances.

On 22 January, Kwan went to Ms Leung and Mr O'Hara's home on St Thomas Street posing as a community nurse called Raj Patel, having arranged the visit through multiple forged letters.

He was disguised behind a face mask and hat and had created a fake ID in which he had tanned his skin and wore a black wig with a false beard and moustache.

The GP travelled to Newcastle the night before in a car fitted with false number plates and stayed at a nearby hotel under a fake name.

At the end of his 45-minute visit, during which he carried out blood checks and health surveys, Kwan injected Mr O'Hara in the arm.

Mr O'Hara said he immediately felt an "excruciating pain" but his visitor told him that was a normal reaction, then left in a hurry.

The victim quickly became suspicious when Ms Leung said the visitor was the same height as her son.

Mr O'Hara spent five weeks in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary during which time doctors cut away large pieces of diseased flesh in a desperate bid to stop the the necrotising fasciitis spreading beyond his arm.

He needed several skin graft surgeries and was left with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as needing ongoing physiotherapy.

Prosecutors believed Kwan used a pesticide called iodomethane, although multiple other poisons, including the ingredients for making ricin, were found at his home along with numerous books, recipes and terrorism manuals about toxins.

Detectives also found evidence of a a "back-up plan" which involved a fake charity sending free food and wine.