A Hong Kong-born doctor has admitted disguising himself as a nurse and attempting to murder his mother's partner in Britain by injecting him with a poison-laced fake Covid vaccine in a dispute over inheritance of property.
Thomas Kwan, 53, wore a bizarre disguise consisting of a fake beard and hairpiece before administering the injection to his mother's long-term lover at the home they shared in Newcastle in the northeast of England, a court heard.
The victim, Patrick O'Hara, suffered from a life-threatening flesh-eating disease following the injection.
O'Hara had been in a relationship with Kwan's mother Jenny Leung, also known as Wai King, for more than two decades and she was said to have named him in her will so he could stay in her house should she die before him, Newcastle Crown Court was told.
UK General Medical Council records show a doctor named Thomas Kwan graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1996, a Post search found. But it could not be immediately confirmed whether he and the defendant are the same person.
Kwan, a partner at the Happy House Surgery in the nearby city of Sunderland, had initially denied attempted murder but changed his plea on Monday after hearing the prosecution open its case against him last week.
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace said Kwan was estranged from his mother, having fallen out with her over her plans to leave her home to O'Hara, who is in his seventies.
Makepeace said the effect of the will was that the property would not go to the mother's children until after her partner's death.
Prosecutors said Kwan sent a forged National Health Service-headed letter to his victim, claiming his age qualified him for a nursing visit.
This was followed up by another letter, stating that a vaccine appointment with a member of a home nursing team had been made for him.
On January 22 this year, Kwan reportedly went to the couple's home pretending to be a community nurse. He donned a disguise to inject O'Hara with an unidentifiable poison.
The court heard Kwan wore a disguise that included a hat, surgical mask, gloves and tinted glasses and spoke in broken English with an Asian accent.
He did a medical questionnaire and checked both O'Hara and Leung's blood pressure before injecting his victim and causing him terrible pain.
O'Hara was eventually diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a life-threatening flesh-eating disease. He remained in intensive care for several weeks. The site of the injection became inflamed despite him being sent home with antibiotics.
Kwan became "obsessed" with ricin, arsenic, cyanide, and nerve agents, the court was told. Makepeace said Kwan used his knowledge of poisons to carry out his plan.
He had previously admitted a charge of administering a noxious substance.
Christopher Atkinson of the UK's Crown Prosecution Service said Kwan went to highly unusual lengths in his attempts to kill O'Hara while avoiding detection.
"Over several months, he obsessively planned a way of gaining access to his victim, which involved the use of counterfeit documents, a shell company and elaborate disguises to obscure the potentially lethal role he was to play in these events," he said.
"While the attempt on his victim's life was thankfully unsuccessful, the effects were still catastrophic. The chemical injected caused increasingly severe damage, beginning with burns and blisters around the injection site and progressing into a potentially life-threatening flesh-eating disease.
"At a time when Kwan could have assisted medical staff by identifying this substance, he instead made no comment to the questions put to him in police interview, allowing the victim's health to further deteriorate."
Kwan, who is married and has a son, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on October 17.
Thomas Kwan, 53, wore a bizarre disguise consisting of a fake beard and hairpiece before administering the injection to his mother's long-term lover at the home they shared in Newcastle in the northeast of England, a court heard.
The victim, Patrick O'Hara, suffered from a life-threatening flesh-eating disease following the injection.
O'Hara had been in a relationship with Kwan's mother Jenny Leung, also known as Wai King, for more than two decades and she was said to have named him in her will so he could stay in her house should she die before him, Newcastle Crown Court was told.
UK General Medical Council records show a doctor named Thomas Kwan graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1996, a Post search found. But it could not be immediately confirmed whether he and the defendant are the same person.
Kwan, a partner at the Happy House Surgery in the nearby city of Sunderland, had initially denied attempted murder but changed his plea on Monday after hearing the prosecution open its case against him last week.
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace said Kwan was estranged from his mother, having fallen out with her over her plans to leave her home to O'Hara, who is in his seventies.
Makepeace said the effect of the will was that the property would not go to the mother's children until after her partner's death.
Prosecutors said Kwan sent a forged National Health Service-headed letter to his victim, claiming his age qualified him for a nursing visit.
This was followed up by another letter, stating that a vaccine appointment with a member of a home nursing team had been made for him.
On January 22 this year, Kwan reportedly went to the couple's home pretending to be a community nurse. He donned a disguise to inject O'Hara with an unidentifiable poison.
The court heard Kwan wore a disguise that included a hat, surgical mask, gloves and tinted glasses and spoke in broken English with an Asian accent.
He did a medical questionnaire and checked both O'Hara and Leung's blood pressure before injecting his victim and causing him terrible pain.
O'Hara was eventually diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a life-threatening flesh-eating disease. He remained in intensive care for several weeks. The site of the injection became inflamed despite him being sent home with antibiotics.
Kwan became "obsessed" with ricin, arsenic, cyanide, and nerve agents, the court was told. Makepeace said Kwan used his knowledge of poisons to carry out his plan.
He had previously admitted a charge of administering a noxious substance.
Christopher Atkinson of the UK's Crown Prosecution Service said Kwan went to highly unusual lengths in his attempts to kill O'Hara while avoiding detection.
"Over several months, he obsessively planned a way of gaining access to his victim, which involved the use of counterfeit documents, a shell company and elaborate disguises to obscure the potentially lethal role he was to play in these events," he said.
"While the attempt on his victim's life was thankfully unsuccessful, the effects were still catastrophic. The chemical injected caused increasingly severe damage, beginning with burns and blisters around the injection site and progressing into a potentially life-threatening flesh-eating disease.
"At a time when Kwan could have assisted medical staff by identifying this substance, he instead made no comment to the questions put to him in police interview, allowing the victim's health to further deteriorate."
Kwan, who is married and has a son, was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on October 17.
