Thursday,
November 7, 2024 - A British doctor who
wore a disguise when he injected his mother's partner with a fake Covid-19
booster in a dispute over inheritance has been jailed for 31 years.
Dr Thomas Kwan, 53, admitted trying to killing Patrick O’Hara in an
extraordinary plan that left the 72-year old with a rare flesh-eating disease.
He had initially denied attempted murder, but changed his plea
after he heard the prosecution open the case against him at Newcastle Crown
Court last month.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 31 years and five months behind bars
by Judge Mrs Justice Lambert, who said: “It was an audacious plan to murder a
man in plain sight and you very nearly succeeded in your objective.’’
At a previous hearing, the victim said the fake vaccination caused
intense pain, making it seem as though his arm was on fire, and that he felt he
should have died.
Mr O’Hara needed weeks of hospital treatment after developing a
flesh-eating disease which required plastic surgery and he said the attack left
him “a shell of an individual”.
Kwan, who was obsessed with money and developed a deep knowledge of
poisons, planned his murder bid for months by writing fake letters, supposedly
from the NHS, offering Mr O’Hara a home visit in January this year.
The married 53-year-old was motivated by greed after finding out that
his mother, Jenny Leung, had made a will which allowed Mr O’Hara to stay in her
home should she die before him. The couple have split up since her son’s
attempt on his life.
Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said at a previous hearing: “The motive
for this attempt to kill was to remove an impediment to his inheritance.”
Kwan refused to tell police which poison he had used as medics battled
to save Mr O’Hara.
His victim had responded with stoicism to his physical suffering, the
court heard, but he has since developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Officers scoured CCTV and were able to track Kwan, still disguised as a
nurse, back to a city centre hotel and then to his home in Ingleby Barwick,
Teesside.
In his garage they discovered an array of dangerous chemicals which the
GP had amassed. On his computer, they found instructions on how to make the
chemical weapon ricin.
It was first thought he had used ricin on Mr O’Hara but a poisons expert
said iodomethane, which is used in pesticides, was more likely.
During the trial last month, Paul Greaney KC, defending, said the GP was
previously of positive good character, and had “ruined his life”.
He described Kwan’s disguise, when he passed himself off as a
nurse, as “amateurish” and “clumsy”.
0 Comments