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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The government has been temporarily blocked from concluding the Chagos Islands deal by a late-night High Court injunction.
Ministers had been expected to complete a deal that would have seen the UK hand over sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius in the coming hours.
But in an emergency injunction granted early on Thursday, brought against the Foreign Office, Mr Justice Goose allowed “interim relief” to Bertrice Pompe, who had previously taken steps to bring legal action over the deal.
Ms Pompe is a Chagossian woman who sees the deal as a betrayal of their rights.
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The order, granted at 2.25am, states the government may take “no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer”.
A hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning, with crowds gathered in support of the block.
The location of the Chagos Islands
The government insisted this morning the Chagos Islands deal is the “right thing” for the UK.
A spokesperson said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.”
It was expected that Sir Keir Starmer would attend a virtual ceremony today to formally hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite heavy criticism from the Conservatives and Reform UK.
The government has argued international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius mean this handover is necessary.
As part of the deal, the UK will lease back a military base on the archipelago for 99 years.
Robert Jenrick, the former justice secretary, told Sky News that the Chagos Islands deal is a “sell-out for British interests”.
He said: “You’re seeing British sovereign territory being given away to an ally of China and billions of pounds of British taxpayers money being spent for the privilege.
“So, if this group can force the government to think twice, then all power to them.”
With this injunction in place, Sir Keir can no longer legally complete the deal.
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Ms Pompe, who filed the application for interim relief, believes the British government is acting with disregard for the human rights of the Chagossian people.
She has argued completion of the deal would amount to a breach of the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act.
Chagossians are the former residents of the Chagos Islands, who were removed from the islands, predominantly to Mauritius, between the mid-1960s and early-1970s.
Those born on the islands and their children hold British nationality, but subsequent generations born outside British territory have no entitlement to it.
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