GP who posed as nurse to kill mum's partner with poisoned jab cut off by family

Daily Mirror

20-06-2025

Once-respected GP Thomas Kwan was jailed for 31 years and five months in November after admitting attempted murder, he is unable to apply for parole for 20 years.
A once-respected doctor who tried to kill his mum's partner while disguised as a nurse has been cut off by his own family, it has been revealed.
Thomas Kwan has been ostracised by his own family after trying to kill his mum's partner with a poison 'Covid jab' while disguised as a nurse. The once respected doctor disguised himself in a wooly hat, tinted glasses and surgical mask to administer a fake Covid jab to his mum's partner. In reality, it contained the highly toxic iodomethane, a fumigant pesticide. Thomas Kwan was jailed for 31 years and five months in November after admitting attempted murder.
‌
‌
"His relationship with his brothers and sisters has been severed for years," said a source close to the case. "His mother has disowned him."
Kwan is also facing potential legal action to confiscate his near £1m NHS pension, which will devastate his finances. Only his Chinese-born wife is still standing by him. His victim Patrick O'Hara, 72, still suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to his horrific ordeal on January 22 last year, Newcastle crown court heard.
On that day, Kwan travelled from his £500,000 property in Ingleby Barwick, to his mum Jenny Leung's home. Kwan's mother had taken £1m out of a joint back account before she divorced Kwan's late father, who died around 30 years ago, aged 60, while Kwan was studying at Newcastle University.
Kwan considered that he had not been fairly treated with his father's will as he did not receive the greatest share of his estate, which he felt was 'his right'. His mother had updated her will to allow Patrick to live in her home in St Thomas St, Newcastle in the event of her death, delaying Kwan's inheritance, with Kwan plotting to kill Patrick to get his hands on his mum's inheritence.
Kwan arranged an appointment in advance using fake NHS letterheads to give Patrick a 'Covid jab', which was actually laced with poison. It was later revealed that Kwan experimented with a series of noxious substances, including ingredients to make ricin, in his garage after the row over his mum's will.
‌
The court had heard Kwan became "obsessed" with ricin, arsenic, cyanide, and nerve agents. He had "10 poisons used to kill people" among guides found after the attack. He told how Kwan sent Mr O'Hara two bogus NHS letters from a "community nurse" called Raj Patel, one of Kwan's former colleagues, and even produced a fake ID in a wig, moustache, specs and goatee beard.
There, he injected Patrick with the lethan concoction, with Patrick later asking his GP about the jab after the injection site became inflamed. He was sent home with antibiotics, but his condition worsened and he was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a life-threatening flesh-eating disease.
Patrick was kept in intensive care and had to have skin on his left arm and shoulder removed due to the flesh eating bug. Five days after the attack, Patrick received another NHS-style letter detailing the results of his blood tests before the jab was given, the jury heard. A package meant for Patrick was then intercepted by police containing over-the-counter iron supplements which the prosecution say had been sent by the defendant. Detectives also interviewed him just days after the attack.
‌
Patrick became suspicious after Jenny made a comment about the nurse being "about the same height" as her son. Sentencing Kwan to 31 years and five months behind bars, Mrs Justice Lambert tol Kwan: "Your intention of visiting the home was to administer a lethal injection of poison to Mr O'Hara on the pretence of administering a Covid booster. It was an audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight and you very nearly succeeded in your objection.
"You were in the home of Mr O'Hara for 40 minutes and for some part of that your mother was also present and you took her blood pressure. Extraordinary though it seems, so trusting were they that neither recognised you under your disguise."
‌
Justice Lambert said financial gain was the motive behind the attempted killing and added: "You were certainly obsessed by money and more particularly by money which you considered yourself to be entitled. I have no doubt that the reason why you tried to kill Mr O'Hara was for financial gain.
"You knew your mother had left the house to her children but you also knew she had changed her will to give Mr O'Hara a life interest in the house. By killing him you removed the obstacle which lay between you and your recovery of your share of the property following your mother's death."
Patrick has separated from Kwan's mother, Jenny, after the ordeal, with Jenny now having disowned her son. After he was jailed in November, Kwan's wife told the Mirror that she did not believe that her husband intended to kill. She added: "In his heart he is very, very good. I don't blame him. I love him, trust him, and will be here for him until the end."
Kwan is currenty serving his sentence and will be unable to apply for parole for 20 years.