GP admits plot to kill mother’s partner by poisoning him with fake COVID booster jab
A GP has admitted plotting to kill his mother’s partner by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a fake COVID booster jab.
Thomas Kwan, 53, was on trial at Newcastle Crown Court and had initially denied attempted murder, but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him.
Police initially thought the married father-of-one used the chemical weapon ricin to try to kill 72-year-old Patrick O’Hara at his mother’s home on 22 January, but an expert believed a pesticide was more likely.
Kwan sparked a major emergency services operation when police found lethal chemicals stored in the detached garage at his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.
The Sunderland-based GP had already pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, claiming he meant to cause no more than mild pain.
Prosecutors said he meant to kill his mother’s partner of more than 20 years, who developed a rare flesh-eating disease as a result of the jab in his arm.
Part of Mr O’Hara’s arm had to be cut away to stop the disease from spreading, and he spent several weeks in intensive care after the injection.
The court heard Kwan posed as a community nurse and used a fake name to book a hotel in his plot.
Pic: Northumbria Police/PA
Victim did ‘absolutely nothing’ to Kwan
Opening the case Thursday, prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC said Mr O’Hara “had done absolutely nothing to offend Mr Kwan in any way whatsoever”.
The lawyer added: “He was, however, a potential impediment to Mr Kwan inheriting his mother’s estate upon her death.”
Jenny Leung, Kwan’s mother, had named Mr O’Hara in her will to the effect that he could stay in her home on St Thomas Street, Newcastle, should she die before her partner.
This led to a strained relationship between Kwan and Ms Leung, the court heard. Police were later called to the property after he burst in uninvited in November 2022.
Prosecutors also described Kwan as “money-obsessed” and noted he installed spyware on his mother’s laptop to monitor her finances.
Kwan had a strained relationship with his mother after she named Patrick O’Hara in her will.
Pic: Northumbria Police/PA
Fake names and nurse disguises
The Hong Kong-born doctor had developed an “encyclopaedic knowledge” of poisons, the court heard, and police discovered he studied how to get away with murder after analysing his home computers.
Mr Makepeace said Kwan had planned 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”.
In November 2023, Kwan wrote to Mr O’Hara as nurse Raj Patel, and offered a home visit to administer the booster jab.
“As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr O’Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker,” Mr Makepeace said.
“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.”
The court also heard the 53-year-old forged NHS documentation to set up the home visit, used false number plates for the journey to Newcastle and booked a city centre hotel using a false name.
When he attended the home, Kwan – wearing a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves, a medical mask and tinted glasses – carried out a 45-minute examination on Mr O’Hara.
He also checked his mother’s blood pressure when she asked, and told Mr O’Hara he needed a Covid booster, despite him having had one only three months prior.
While administering the injection, Mr O’Hara shouted in pain. Kwan told him the reaction was not uncommon while speaking in broken English using an Asian accent, and left the home quickly.
A day after the fake COVID jab, Mr O’Hara’s arm had become blistered and seriously discoloured as he developed necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease.
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UK
Urgent letter to home secretary over violence against women and girls strategy – as it omits child abuse
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.
Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.
Poppy Eyre when she was four years old
Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.
The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.
Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse
She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.
The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.
“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.
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Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.
It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.
“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.
“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.
UK
Man and boy arrested on suspicion of arson after restaurant fire leaves two in critical condition
A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.
Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.
Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.
Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.
Woodford Avenue from above. Pic: UK News and Pictures
Police are still trying to identify them.
CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.
Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.
“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.
“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.
The moment the fire broke out.
“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”
Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.
He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”
He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”
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The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.
“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.
On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.
“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”
The police investigation is continuing.
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