UK police label Hong Kong-born doctor ‘despicable’ for murder attempt with toxin-laced jab

British police have described a Hong Kong-born doctor as “utterly despicable” after he was found guilty of disguising himself as a nurse and attempting to murder his mother’s partner by injecting him with a poison-laced fake vaccine. Newcastle Crown Court earlier found Thomas Kwan, 53, guilty of attempting to murder Patrick O’Hara, after it heard the doctor had worn a disguise consisting of a fake beard and hairpiece before administering the injection at the couple’s home in northeast England. Detective Chief Inspector Jason Henry of Northumbria Police described the defendant’s actions as “utterly despicable”. “He used his experience as a doctor to deceive the victim into thinking the medical appointment he had arranged was genuine, before administering the poison which has caused unimaginable pain and suffering,” he said. “While nothing can change the impact of Kwan’s actions on his victim, we do hope the fact he has been brought to justice will help them move on with their lives.” O’Hara suffered from a life-threatening flesh-eating disease following the injection. The victim 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 if she died before him, the 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. That doctor’s medical licence was suspended as of late February. It could not be immediately confirmed whether he and the convicted Thomas Kwan are the same person. However, the list of registered doctors with the Medical Council of Hong Kong included a non-resident physician with the same name graduating from the same university, as well as the same year of qualification. 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 letter to his victim, claiming O’Hara’s 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 disguised himself and injected 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. He was sent home on a course of antibiotics but the puncture site of the injection remained inflamed. Police said the victim had since undergone numerous operations, including receiving skin grafts, to repair the extensive damage caused by the poison, adding O’Hara had been left with life-changing injuries. The court earlier heard Kwan had become “obsessed” with ricin, arsenic, cyanide and nerve agents. Makepeace said the doctor had used his knowledge of poisons to carry out the plan. Local authorities added that during the investigation, officers found a “poisoner’s handbook” and a guide on murder investigations on his computer. The files were discovered alongside other documents detailing various poisons that could kill someone while leaving minimal detectable traces. Kwan was also found to have installed spying software on his mother’s computer to monitor her and O’Hara’s digital activities for more than a year. He had previously admitted a charge of administering a noxious substance. Christopher Atkinson of the United Kingdom’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.

UK police label Hong Kong-born doctor ‘despicable’ for murder attempt with toxin-laced jab

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Newcastle Crown Court earlier found Thomas Kwan guilty of giving poisonous jab to his mother’s long-term partner after inheritance dispute

Newcastle Crown Court earlier found Thomas Kwan guilty of giving poisonous jab to his mother’s long-term partner after inheritance dispute