GP who tried to kill mother's partner faces 35 years in jail

Dr Thomas Kwan’s 72-year-old victim, Patrick O’Hara, told Newcastle Crown Court the vaccination caused intense pain, making it seem as though his arm was on fire, and that he felt he should have died.

The incident has caused Mr O’Hara to move out of the home he shared with Kwan’s mother, Jenny Leung, and he has now found love again with his ex-wife, the court heard.

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.

(Image: owen humphreys) Peter Makepeace KC, prosecuting, said the plot was financially-motivated because Kwan felt entitled to benefit from his mother’s will, but she had stated in it that Mr O’Hara could stay in their home in the event of her death.

“The motive for this attempt to kill was to remove an impediment to his inheritance,” he said.

Kwan was well-paid as a GP and had made a £2 million offer on a house in the South of England, the court was told.

He gave his mother a computer in 2020 but she was unaware that he had installed spyware on it so he could track her financial dealings.

Mr Makepeace said a “particularly unpleasant” aspect of the case, revealed in prison letters sent to the defendant’s wife, was that Kwan was angry that Mr O’Hara was entitled to compensation.

He wrote: “One old man’s compensation for three young lives ruined. Where’s the justice in that?”

Kwan had previously forged legal documents when his father died, Mr Makepeace said, after falling out with relatives about his will.

The prosecutor said other aggravating factors were that the attack happened in Mr O’Hara’s home, that Kwan had taken the weapon – a syringe – to the scene, and that he did not tell doctors which poison he had used.

(Image: Northumbria Police) Mr Makepeace said the alternative suggestion that Kwan’s motive was not financial but was actually to upset his mother by killing her innocent partner was “hideous”.

Mr O’Hara’s 21-year relationship with Ms Leung has broken down and he has moved in with his daughter, becoming close again with his ex-wife Theresa, the court heard.

Mr Makepeace said: “He has lost his relationship, he has lost the home he lived in with her.”

The Crown said medics spoke of Mr O’Hara’s stoicism over the way he has responded physically to being poisoned with iodomethane, but he has since developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

“He is a man of the time,” Mr Makepeace said. “He has dealt with it with iron strength.

“He has not been able to deal with the psychological aspect.”

Mrs Justice Lambert indicated that the sentencing guidelines point towards a jail term in the range of 25 to 35 years, and Mr Makepeace said aggravating factors push the case to the top end of that.

Mrs Justice Lambert suggested she might give Kwan a five per cent reduction in his sentence because he pleaded guilty after the trial began.

She must evaluate whether Kwan is a danger to the public.

Mr Makepeace, referring to the chemicals found in Kwan’s garage, said: “Here is a man who irrationally has harboured an intention to kill a man in the worst imaginable way, planned it meticulously, and has furnished himself with multiple ways of achieving that.

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“He was equipping himself with the knowledge to potentially cause serious mayhem.”

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”.

Mrs Justice Lambert will sentence Kwan at a later date.