A respected GP who devised an “audacious” plan to kill his mother’s partner by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a fake Covid booster jab, a court has heard.
Thomas Kwan, 53, who is a practicing GP in Sunderland, denies attempting to murder Patrick O’Hara, then aged 71, who is a potential impediment to him inheriting his mother’s estate upon her death.
He also denies an alternative charge of grievous bodily harm with intent.
Kwan however pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, but the Crown’s case is that he meant to kill the pensioner.
“Mr Kwan used his encyclopaedic 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.”
Prosecutors said the plan involved Kwan forging NHS documentation, disguising himself, using false number plates and booking in to a hotel using a false name.
That decision led to her having a strained relationship with her son, so much so that the police were called when Kwan burst into her home uninvited in November 2022, the court was told.
A year later, Kwan, who is married with a son and lived 50 miles south in Brading Court, Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, faked a letter from the NHS on his home computer to Mr O’Hara claiming to be from a community nurse called Raj Patel, he offered Mr O’Hara a home visit, following up that letter in January.
Having stayed in a city centre Premier Inn under a false name, Kwan went to his mother’s house in a long coat, flat cap, surgical gloves and wearing a medical mask and tinted glasses, the court heard.
Posing as a nurse, Kwan spent 45 minutes at the house, carrying out thorough medical tests on Mr O’Hara and even checked his unsuspecting mother’s blood pressure when she asked him to.
Kwan then told Mr O’Hara he needed a covid booster, even though he had only had one three months ago.
Mr O’Hara contacted his own GP and found from a local hospital that the NHS organisation which had written to him did not exist.
He then went to the nearby Accident and Emergency unit at the Royal Victoria Infirmary where staff initially believed his injuries were due to a “clumsy” covid vaccine.
“Mr O’Hara remained in intensive care for a prolonged period of weeks.”
The trial continues.