Thomas Kwan: GP who tried to kill mother's partner with poison jab in Newcastle jailed for 31 years

Katie Cole was at Newcastle Crown Court as Dr Thomas Kwan was sentenced for attempted murder

A GP has been jailed for more than 30 years for trying to kill his mother's partner with a fake Covid jab loaded with poison while posing as a community nurse.

Dr Thomas Kwan was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday (6 November) having previously pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Patrick O'Hara.

In an elaborate plot described as being "like something out of a Hollywood movie", the 53-year-old hatched a plan to kill the long-term partner of his mother in a bid to cut him out of her will.

The unsuccessful scheme saw Kwan send fake NHS letters and texts before dressing in disguise and administering a fake Covid booster which would leave his 72-year-old victim with lifelong mental and physical injuries.

Sentencing Kwan in a packed courtroom to 31 years and five months in prison, Mrs Justice Lambert condemned the "callous and calculated" method which the defendant adopted to gain entry into his victim's house.

She said: "Your masquerade you struck at the heart of public confidence in the healthcare profession."

Victim Patrick O'Hara says "justice has been done" as reacts to the sentencing outside of court

The court previously heard Kwan's mother, Jenny Leung, had been in a relationship with Mr O'Hara for 21 years.

Her will stated that Mr O’Hara would inherit a share of her home when she died. But the married father-of-one, who was "obsessed with money", did not approve.

Prosecutors said this struck at the very heart of his sense of entitlement and led to him plotting to take Mr O'Hara out of the picture.

At the start of November last year, Kwan sent his first fake NHS letter to Mr O’Hara, purporting to be from a community nursing team, which advised him he was eligible for a home visit and they would be in touch soon.

In December, Kwan then cleared his diary for the attack - booking a holiday for the end of January from his work at Happy House Surgery, in Sunderland, where he was a GP and partner.

When January came, another fake letter was sent to Mr O’Hara informing him a home visit with a nurse had been arranged.

This was followed by a text message reminding Mr O'Hara of the appointment, the day before the attack.

In the early hours of 22 January, Kwan made the journey from his home in Brading Court, Ingleby Barwick, to Newcastle, using fake registration plates on his car.

He checked in at the Premier Inn, in Newgate Street, shortly before 2.45am where he had booked using a false name.

A few hours later he appeared on the hotel's cameras leaving his room, wearing a long coat, hat, mask and surgical gloves.

The GP was then tracked on CCTV making his way on foot towards the city centre home his mother and then partner shared, on St Thomas Street.

Mr O'Hara let the tinted-glasses-wearing 'community nurse' into the house where he spent 45 minutes.

All the time speaking in what the court heard was broken English with an Asian accent, Kwan carried out health checks, a questionnaire, took bloods and his blood pressure.

The doctor in disguise even took the blood pressure of his own mother before moving on to inject Mr O'Hara.

As the needle of the supposed Covid booster entered his arm, the victim described flinching and feeling "instant, excruciating pain" as Kwan hastily packed up his bag to leave.

The court heard his mother, Ms Leung, made a comment to Mr O’Hara that the nurse was the same height as her son - leading the victim to suspect something was seriously wrong.

Two days later Mr O'Hara was taken into intensive care in hospital where, suffering from a rare and flesh-eating disease, he remained for weeks.

When police were called to Mr O'Hara's bedside - he told them he was suspicious that the nurse could have been Kwan.

Two weeks after the attack, the GP was arrested by police who found a haul of chemicals and associated equipment in his detached garage.

Among the array of chemicals was 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.

Newly released footage from Northumbria Police shows the moment disgraced doctor Thomas Kwan was arrested at his home

A search of his home also revealed a mobile phone used to text Mr O’Hara and storage devices containing research materials on poisons, guidance on murder investigations, and toxicology books including a book called ‘10 poisons used to kill people’.

Kwan came before a jury charged with attempted murder but admitted his guilt on the second day of trial last month.

Today he was sentenced to 34 years imprisonment, reduced to 31 years and five months on account of his guilty plea. He will serve two thirds of the sentence behind bars.

During sentencing, Mrs Justice Lambert said Kwan was not considered to be a risk to the wider public and therefore did not hand him the life sentence the prosecution had called for.

Mrs Justice Lambert told Kwan: "You set out to harm Mr O’Hara when he was in his own home, where he had every right to feel safe. You gained entry to his home in the most calculated and callous of ways, under the guise of a trusted healthcare professional.

"You sought and obtained his (and your mother’s) trust by abusing your knowledge of the healthcare system by faking letters purportedly from an NHS institution.

"They were good forgeries, but such is the trust and confidence that Mr O’Hara and your mother and the wider community place in the NHS that no one would have thought to review those letters in a critical way.

"I agree with the prosecution that the wider impact of your offending cannot be ignored. By your masquerade you struck at the heart of public confidence in the healthcare profession."

Mrs Justice Lambert sentences Thomas Kwan to 31 years and five months behind bars

Paul Greaney KC, defending Kwan, previously told the court there were "mixed motives" behind the attempted murder.

Mr Greaney said: "This terrible scheme did not have as its sole focus financial gain but was much more generally influenced by his feelings about his relationship with his mother and the way she had treated him.

"It's not just financial gain, other things are happening."

Mr Greaney added: "There is little to extenuate offending as grave as this.

"He is entitled to ask you to take into account the fact he, at the age of 53, has no previous convictions, the fact he is a local GP and he should be regarded as having been of positive good character and thirdly it is plain he is not going to have an easy time in prison."

Mr Greaney said probation officials had assessed Kwan posing a "medium risk to his own mother".

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