GP accused of making ricin ‘disguised himself as a nurse to try and murder mother’s partner with fake Covid jab laced with poison because he stood in way of his inheritance’

A GP disguised himself as a nurse and tried to kill his mother’s partner by injecting him with a fake Covid booster jab laced with poison because he stood in the way of his inheritance, a court heard today. 

Thomas Kwan, 53, a partner at a surgery in Sunderland, was seen in CCTV footage arriving at a Premier Inn in Newcastle donning a hat, tinted spectacles, gloves and a mask on January 22. 

He later left the hotel and walked across the city to his mother’s house to administer an injection to her partner Patrick O’Hara. Afterwards the 71-year-old became grievously ill but survived following emergency surgery. 

Kwan has pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance but denies attempted murder and an alternative charge of grievous bodily harm with intent. He has also been accused of hoarding ingredients at his home to make ricin and other toxins. 

Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court today: ‘Sometimes, occasionally perhaps, the truth really is stranger than fiction. The case you are about to try, on any view, is an extraordinary case.

Thomas Kwan, 53, a partner at a surgery in Sunderland, was 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 

Emergency services outside Kwan’s £300,000 home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, earlier this year 

Police officers were seen carrying boxes of evidence away from the large property 

‘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.

‘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 encyclopedic 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.’

Mr Makepeace said the defendant will say his intention was to cause ‘no more than mild pain or discomfort’.

But he claimed: ‘It was an audacious plan, it was a plan to murder a man in plain sight, to murder a man right in front of his own mother’s eyes, that man’s life partner.’

The court heard Kwan was estranged from his mother, Wai King, 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,’ Mr Makepeace said.

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 practicing 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 the deadly plot, it is claimed. 

Kwan getting out of his car (middle) after arriving at the hotel’s underground car park 

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 om

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 

The GP allegedly began ‘scoping out’ hotels in Newcastle, which he planned to use as a base to carry out the murder plan, taking his family to the Premier Inn a week before the attack to check it was suitable.

He then sent a text message to Mr O’Hara, finally confirming the appointment, on a temporary mobile phone with a PIN card he bought for that purpose, it is claimed. 

In the early hours of January 22, Kwan drove from his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, to Newcastle and checked in to the Premier Inn where cameras caught him calmly making his way to breakfast.

Mr Makepeace told the court: ‘Two hours later he left his hotel room again. He was now dressed very differently.

He was wearing a long coat and a flat cap. He had blue surgical gloves on his hands and a clinical mask covering his face even as he left his room, traversed the hotel lobby and exited the hotel.

‘He can be seen to be carrying a satchel-like bag. He had plainly disguised himself, and of course he needed to.

‘What he is about to do, he is going to do in front of his own mother, to a man he knew and who knew him.’

Kwan walked across Newcastle and arrived at his mother’s home at around 10am, introducing himself as the expected nurse.

He took blood samples and a urine sample from Mr O’Hara, labelling each of them and placing them in his bag.

Kwan’s mother entered the room at that point and said she was concerned about her blood pressure. To reassure her, Kwan took it without her realising the man behind the surgical mask was her son.

A photo dated February 2024 showing emergency services outside Kwan’s home 

A large forensic tent was erected in the garden of the property 

Kwan told Mr O’Hara he was going to give him a Covid booster injection and when the patient told him he had only had his last booster 3 months earlier, he assured him this was necessary to keep up his protection from infection.

Mr Makepeace said: ‘As most of us do, Mr O’Hara averted his eyes as the nurse proceeded to dispense an injection into his left upper arm.

‘Immediately Mr O’Hara felt a terrible pain and jumped back. He shouted, ‘bloody hell’ and explained the immediate and intense pain, but the nurse reassured him it was not an uncommon, bad reaction and it was nothing to be concerned about.

‘However, from that point forward, ‘the nurse’ began to noticeably speed up his departure, packing up his equipment and leaving the premises in something of a rush, telling Mr O’Hara not to worry about his stinging arm as the pain would pass in time.’

Within seconds of the jab, Mr O’Hara began to feel agonising pain in his arm and his life was only saved by surgeons cutting away large sections of the poisoned flesh in emergency surgery.

The trial continues.