Sunderland GP jailed for poisoning mother’s partner over inheritance dispute

A doctor who disguised himself and injected a mother’s partner with a poisonous substance over an inheritance dispute has been sentenced to 31 years and 5 months in prison.

Thomas Kwan, 53, posed as a community nurse administering a coronavirus booster jab when he injected Patrick O’Hara, 71, with the toxin in Newcastle in January.

Mr O’Hara, who contracted the life-threatening flesh-eating disease and suffered severe injuries, previously told a Newcastle court that he had become a “shell” of himself.

Kwan, who admitted attempted murder after the first day of his trial, was described as “calculating and callous” by the sentencing judge.

KC prosecutor Peter Makepeace said the GP, who works at Happy House Surgery in Sunderland, had spent months planning the “daring” attack.

He is so ‘obsessed’ with money that his mother Wai King Leung, also known as Jenny Leung, made a will in 2021 giving his partner of 21 years a share in their Newcastle home. The court heard that he was angry at what had happened.

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

A doctor had installed spyware on her mother’s computer several years ago to track her finances.

On January 22, Kwan arranged a visit through several forged letters and went to Leon and O’Hara’s home on St. Thomas Street, posing as a community nurse named Raj Patel.

He had created a fake identity by disguising himself with a face mask and hat, tanning his skin, and wearing a black wig with a fake beard and mustache.

The doctor drove to Newcastle the night before in a car with fake number plates and stayed in a nearby hotel under a false name.

At the end of a 45-minute visit in which he spoke in a broken Asian accent and performed blood tests and health checks, Mr. Kwan gave Mr. O’Hara an injection in his arm.

Ms O’Hara said she immediately felt “excruciating pain” but the visitor told her it was a normal reaction and hurried away.

When Leon said the visitor was the same height as her son, the victim immediately became suspicious.

Mr O’Hara spent five weeks at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, during which doctors removed large sections of affected flesh in a desperate attempt to stop the necrotizing fasciitis from spreading beyond his arm.

He required several skin graft surgeries, was left with post-traumatic stress disorder, and required ongoing physical therapy.

Speaking outside court after the sentencing hearing, Mr O’Hara praised the NHS staff who saved his life and said justice had been done.

Prosecutors believed Kwan used a pesticide called iodomethane, but multiple other poisons, including raw materials for making ricin, as well as numerous books, recipes and anti-terrorism manuals about toxins were found in Kwan’s home. discovered.

Detectives also found evidence of a “back-up scheme” involving a fake charity sending free food and wine.

Judge Lambert said the incident was a “daring” and widely planned plot to “kill someone in secrecy” that almost worked.

She said Mr Kwan was posing as a community nurse to administer a “lethal injection” to the victim, and said Mr O’Hara had no reason to suspect the visitor was not genuine.

The judge said the letter forged by Mr Kwan was “sophisticated” and that Mr Kwan had broken into Mr O’Hara’s home in the “most calculating and ruthless way”, adding that it had “undermined the public’s trust in the NHS”. “It gets to the heart of the matter,” he added.

She said doctors were perplexed by Mr O’Hara’s symptoms, adding that he had sustained severe injuries that required extensive treatment.

“Fortunately he survived but continues to suffer from the physical and mental effects of your attempt to kill him.

“It’s clear he has changed from the tough, stoic person he was before the attack.”

Mrs Justice Lambert said Ms O’Hara suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and flashbacks and had separated from Ms Kwan’s mother.

The court found that Mr Kwan was born in Hong Kong, moved to the UK to attend boarding school at the age of 13 and later studied medicine at Newcastle University.

Mrs Justice Lambert said Kwan’s motive was a “relentless obsession” with his mother’s inheritance, adding: “His resentment and resentment towards his mother and Mr O’Hara was all about money.”

She noted that Kwan had a “pathological obsession” with poisons, amassed a “library of material” and searched the Internet for iodomethane 97 times in January.

The judge said Mr Kwan was a “dangerous offender” who posed a high risk of causing serious harm to Mr O’Hara.

His doctor was told that he displayed “shocking levels of distorted thinking, a clear sense of entitlement and the ability to take the most extreme actions to meet his own needs”.