Doctor dressed in disguise to inject mum's partner with poison in fake COVID jab

A British doctor has confessed to attempting the murder of his mother's long-term partner by injecting the man with poison disguised as a Covid vaccine. He believed the man was a barrier to his inheritance.

Prosecutors claim that Dr Thomas Kwan posed as a community nurse delivering booster shots and injected Patrick O'Hara with a toxic substance, likely a pesticide.

O'Hara, 72, contracted a rare flesh-eating disease that landed him in intensive care. Kwan, 53, initially denied attempted murder but changed his plea to guilty after prosecutors presented their case at Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England.

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Prosecutor Thomas Makepeace described Kwan as a "respected and experienced" family doctor based in Sunderland, about 15 miles from Newcastle. The lawyer stated that Kwan used his "encyclopedic knowledge" of poisons in his plot to kill O'Hara, who was "a potential impediment to Mr Kwan inheriting his mother's estate upon her death."

Makepeace revealed that Kwan forged documentation, used a vehicle with fake license plates and disguised himself with head-to-toe protective clothing, tinted glasses and a surgical mask to visit the home in Newcastle that O'Hara shared with Kwan's mother, Jenny Leung, in January.

"As I suspect, would any of us, Mr O'Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker," the prosecutor stated. The following day, suffering from pain and a blistered arm, O'Hara sought medical help at a hospital where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, reports the Express US .

To halt the spread, part of his arm was surgically removed, leading to several weeks in intensive care for O'Hara. Kwan was identified through surveillance camera footage.

A search of his home by police revealed an assortment of chemicals, including arsenic and liquid mercury, as well as castor beans which can be used to produce the chemical weapon ricin. The exact substance used has not been confirmed by police.

Christopher Atkinson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, mentioned that Kwan had declined to identify the poison, "allowing the victim's health to further deteriorate."

"While the attempt on his victim's life was thankfully unsuccessful, the effects were still catastrophic," he added. Kwan is due to receive his sentence later.

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