“It’s like something out of a Netflix thriller happening next door.”
It was a cold, dark, night in February when residents of a quiet Ingleby Barwick suburb were thrust into the centre of a major police investigation.
They didn’t know it at the time, but just metres from their home, a probe had been launched into now-disgraced GP Dr Thomas Kwan, after he tried to murder his mother’s partner.
From the outside, the Sunderland GP had the perfect life. He lived in a £400,000 home as a married father-of-one, with a successful career as a doctor under his belt.
But behind the walls of the plush Brading Court mansion lay a dark secret - Kwan had been storing lethal chemicals in his detached garage and was hatching a sinister murder plot, as part of an inheritance row.
On January 22, the doctor disguised himself as a community nurse and poisoned Patrick O'Hara with a flesh-eating toxin under the guise of a Covid booster jab.
Just weeks later, Kwan’s Ingleby mansion was swarmed by 999 crews after the unsuspecting father was found storing an array of chemicals such as arsenic, liquid mercury, and castor beans, the latter of which can be used to make the chemical weapon ricin.
And today (October 17), "money-obsessed" Kwan is facing a "substantial custodial term" as he awaits sentencing after admitting the attempted murder earlier this month.
The dust may have settled on the chaotic few days experienced by those living nearby Kwan - but months on, the “pure shock” is still palpable.
“It’s mental isn’t it,” one 49-year-old resident told The Northern Echo this week.
“There will 100% be a BBC iPlayer episode all over it because of how carefully and meticulously planned it was.
“If they did a programme on that canoe man [John Darwin], then they will do one on this.”
The unnamed resident - who was not at home at the time of the incident as he works internationally - added: “We knew everything about five days after it happened - we knew the details about the fake plates and disguise.
“When they emptied the garage, the police came round at about 6am and said to keep the windows closed. They said not to leave our home until after 9am.
“The plan spanned the North East - here, it happened in Newcastle, and he was a GP in Sunderland.”
‘You just think someone is a normal person’
While resident and mother-of-six Angela Jones didn’t know Kwan well, she had previously met him and watched on from a window as police swooped in on his home in February.
The 61-year-old - who works at an opticians and has lived in her home for 16 years - had even sorted Kwan with some glasses a few years ago.
“You just think someone is a normal person,” Angela said.
“I do a lot of doctors at work and you just don’t think, oh, one day that man right in front of you is going to be an attempted murderer.”
The grandmother, who lives in her home with partner Paul, said she initially feared there were dead bodies in the home after the tents were erected on February 6.
She added: “When all the people turned up with the suits we were all like, what the hell is going on? We were looking out the window when two tents were already there - and then there was a third. I was thinking people had been buried.
“I got a knock at the door the day after and it was a policeman. He just told us that it was something to do with chemicals - but that it was nothing to worry about.
“The next day, three police officers were walking down the road and they asked people to keep their windows and doors shut.
Angela said she was even left fearing for the wider community after the ordeal: “What happened in the garage could have affected a lot of us around here.
“I think he must have had a great hatred towards his mother’s boyfriend. It’s more than just money this, it’s hate.
“To go to those measures… I think he could have been a danger to all of us. He’s actually put his own child in danger. What if he had gone into that garage?”
‘Calculating and extraordinary’ - doctor
“What does society have to do to catch these people?”
This is the question asked by nearby resident Doctor Santhosh, who said he was left in “pure shock” after hearing the details of the horrific incident.
He said: “I come from a healthcare profession and, in the capacity of a doctor, it just comes as a pure shock. Where do these personality types draw the line?”
The 50-year-old was also shocked by the disguise concocted by Kwan, which he used to con his own mother into believing he was an NHS nurse.
Dr Santhosh - who described the situation as both “out of the ordinary and out of the blue” - continued: “The other thing is the ultra confidence that the criminal mind puts into it.
“How one person can put on a disguise in front of another person to try and fool that person. It is extraordinary.
“It’s like something out of a nine episode thriller happening next door. This could become a Netflix or Amazon Prime series.”
He also argued that questions now remain: “Could we have prevented this?”
‘My heart goes out to the family’
As the trial drew to a close, the thoughts of Kwan’s immediate family were also on the minds of the residents living nearby.
One 45-year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Echo: “My heart goes out to the family. For the considerable future, they will not know what is in store.”
Recalling the day, the woman - who is a doctor alongside her husband - continued: “The day when all the police vans were here was unbelievable.
“Unbelievable that this could have happened at our back door. This was on a scale that was unprecedented. The police vans… we knew something big was happening.”
Recommended reading:
- Sunderland GP from Ingleby Barwick on trial for attempted murder
- Sunderland GP admits attempted murder of mother's partner
- Fake NHS note forged by would-be killer GP was part of murder plan
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She added that she was initially concerned after hearing about substances being found in the garage, with the couple having small children.
She added: “We have lived here since 2018 and we had hardly seen the family. When it is summer and the kids are out in the garden, we would still hardly ever see them.”
Kwan will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court today.
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