A twisted GP ‘poisoned’ the plants in his neighbour’s garden before he tried to kill his mother’s partner with a suspected pesticide, it has been claimed.
Earlier this month, Thomas Kwan admitted an extraordinary plot to kill his stepfather by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a fake Covid booster jab following an inheritance dispute.
The 53-year-old wore a bizarre disguise consisting of a fake beard and hairpiece before administering the poison-laced injection to Patrick O’Hara at the home he shared with the doctor’s mother in Newcastle.
The ‘money-obsessed’ GP wanted to inherit his mother’s home but they had fallen out after she decided she wanted to give it to her partner of 20 years instead.
Kwan, who tricked Mr O’Hara by posing as a community nurse called Raj Patel, hoarded the ingredients for ricin and was initially believed to have used the chemical weapon in the attack but police now believe it was more likely a pesticide.
Thomas Kwan, 53, admitted trying to murder Patrick O’Hara at the home he shared with the doctor’s mother in Newcastle
Victim Patrick O’Hara leaves Newcastle Crown Court with friends after a hearing for GP Thomas Kwan last Thursday
Kwan is seen in a selfie wearing a disguise of a fake hairpiece, beard and moustache. He took this selfie in order to create a fake ID under the name ‘Raj Patel’
Mr O’Hara, 72, developed a rare flesh-eating disease from the January 22 injection but narrowly survived. He spent five weeks in hospital and has described the ‘excruciating pain’ he experienced.
The grandfather recently relapsed dramatically, losing all his hair and suffering complications such as fatigue, weight loss and hallucinations.
He told Newcastle Crown Court last week: ‘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.’
Police returned to Kwan’s £300,000 home to carry out further searches after he changed his plea to admit attempted murder earlier this month.
Detectives combed through his house and the garage where he was storing a terrifying arsenal of noxious substances and castor beans, used in the production of ricin.
A neighbour on the close where Kwan lived has told The Mirror that their plants and shrubs all died.
‘It was more than just one or two plants,’ they said. ‘It was not an accidental dump of some of the chemicals in his garage. He maliciously killed the plants.’
Another neighbour, now 20, said he used to play in the garden next door to Kwan with his brother.
He told the newspaper: ‘He picked up the balls when they went into his garden, took them in the garage and put a pin in them and then put them in the bin.
‘We did make a noise playing against the fence but do you really have to do that in the garage? He later threatened to get an Asbo against us if we went anywhere near his garage.
Kwan’s mother, Wai King – also known as Jenny Leung – pictured outside court
Emergency services outside Kwan’s £300,000 home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, earlier this year
‘After the case, with all the poisons, we wondered if that is why he wanted to keep us away from there. They were our neighbours, but we did not speak to them after that.’
Kwan had initially denied attempted murder but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him.
Prosecutors described how Kwan was estranged from his mother, Wai King – also known as Jenny Leung – after falling out with her over her plans to leave her home to Mr O’Hara, who she had been in a relationship with for more than 20 years.
‘The effect of the will was that the property would not go to Ms Leung’s children until after Mr O’Hara’s death,’ Peter Makepeace KC said earlier this month.
On November 15 2022, Kwan pushed past Mr O’Hara to get into his mother’s home and began grilling her about the will. Mr O’Hara called police and Kwan was given a warning.
Kwan, a partner and practising GP at the Happy House surgery in Sunderland, went back to his £300,000 home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, where he lived with his wife and young son, to devise a plot to kill him.
The Hong Kong-born doctor had developed an ‘encyclopaedic knowledge’ of poisons, the court heard, and he studied how to get away with murder, police discovered from analysis of his home computers.
Kwan sparked a major emergency services operation when police found lethal chemicals stored in the detached garage of his family home.
Kwan a partner at a surgery in Sunderland, is seen in CCTV footage arriving at a Premier Inn in Newcastle wearing a heavy disguise
The GP, who wore a hat, tinted spectacles, gloves and a surgical mask, is seen checking into the hotel
The prosecution described him as ‘money-obsessed’ and said he even installed spyware on his mother’s laptop so he could monitor her finances.
Before pleading guilty to attempted murder, the Sunderland-based GP had already pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, claiming he meant to cause no more than mild pain.
The Crown’s case was that he meant to kill his mother’s partner of more than 20 years.
Opening the case earlier this month, Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said: ‘Mr Thomas Kwan, the defendant in the case, 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.
Police officers were seen carrying boxes of evidence away from the large property
‘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 encyclopaedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan.
‘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.’
Kwan forged NHS documentation to set up the home visit, disguised himself, used false number plates for the journey to Newcastle and booked in to a city centre hotel using a false name.
Kwan’s mother, Jenny Leung, named Mr O’Hara in her will to the effect that he could stay in her house in St Thomas Street, Newcastle, should she die before her partner.
Kwan getting out of his car (middle) after arriving at the underground car park in Newcastle on the day of the attempted murder
The GP, who carried a large bag, is seen making his way up the stairs
A close up of the doctor’s face as he was walking up the stairs without a mask on
A heavily disguised Kwan walking into his room after checking in
He later walked across Newcastle and arrived at his mother’s home at around 10am, introducing himself as the expected nurse
A furious Kwan wrote to Mr O’Hara last November claiming to be a community nurse called Raj Patel and offered him a home visit.
Mr Makepeace said: ‘As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr O’Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker, he had not the slightest suspicion that this was anything other than a genuine NHS community care initiative which he warmly welcomed and was grateful for.’
Kwan was caught on CCTV checking into a Premier Inn in Newcastle wearing his disguise.
He later went to his mother’s house in a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves and wearing a medical mask and tinted glasses, and carried out a 45-minute examination on Mr O’Hara, and even checked his unsuspecting mother’s blood pressure when she asked.
Kwan, in what the court heard was broken English with an Asian accent, told Mr O’Hara he needed a Covid booster, even though he had only had one three months ago.
Mr O’Hara shouted in pain when it was administered and Kwan quickly packed his equipment and left, reassuring his victim that a reaction was not uncommon.
A photo dated February 2024 showing emergency services outside Kwan’s home
A large forensic tent was erected in the garden of the property
The pain continued and Mr O’Hara began to suspect something had gone badly wrong.
The next day his arm had blistered and was seriously discoloured and medics at hospital were baffled.
He had developed the flesh-eating disease necrotising fasciitis and needed to have part of his arm cut away to stop it spreading, and spent several weeks in intensive care.
The fake nurse’s movements were traced using CCTV and police were able to identify Kwan as a suspect.
Searches of his home in the executive estate where he lived revealed an array of chemicals such as arsenic and liquid mercury as well as castor beans which can be used to make the chemical weapon ricin.
Police found a recipe for ricin on his computer but Ministry of Defence poisons expert Professor Steven Emmett, although still not sure which poison was used, thought iodomethane which is commonly used in pesticides, was more likely.
Mrs Justice Lambert said she will sentence Kwan once the issue of his dangerousness has been considered by the Probation Service.
The prosecution said their position remained that the case was financially motivated.
Mrs Justice Lambert warned Kwan: ‘There will be a substantial custodial term.’
Paul Greaney KC, defending, replied: ‘The defendant entirely understands that is inevitable.’
