See the forged NHS letter poisoning GP used to set up bid to kill his mum's partner for cash
Dr Thomas Kwan has admitted trying to murder pensioner Patrick O'Hara in Newcastle city centre
by Rob Kennedy · ChronicleLiveThis is the forged NHS letter a murderous GP sent to his mum's partner setting up what he hoped would be a chance to kill him.
Dr Thomas Kwan had hatched an extraordinary plot to murder Patrick O'Hara because he saw him as a potential obstacle to getting his inheritance as quickly as he wanted if anything happened to his mum. Having amassed a collection of poisons, he sought to set Mr O'Hara up with an appointment supposedly to administer a Covid booster jab.
Instead, he disguised himself as a community nurse and injected him with poison at the couple's home in Newcastle city centre. Kwan is now facing a lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty to attempted murder.
The court heard Kwan sent a first letter to Mr O'Hara in November 2023. Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC said: "That letter was utterly convincing. Its use of medical terminology, its deployment of NHS hyperlinks and data protection privacy notices etc gave it a chilling authenticity. The letter was in fact a total fake, it was authored by Mr Kwan on his home computer, he had carefully copied and pasted the NHS logo.
"This letter was the first outward sign of the terrible scheme Mr Kwan had been planning to execute. The nature of that plan and methodology of that plan was cemented by this date."
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In early January 2024 Mr O’Hara received the second fake letter, offering him a home visit on January 22. Mr Makepeace said: "As, I suspect, would any of us, Mr O’Hara fell for it hook, line and sinker, he had not the slightest suspicion that this was anything other than a genuine NHS community care initiative which he warmly welcomed and was grateful for."
Mr O'Hara, 71, who lived with Kwan's mother on St Thomas Street, Newcastle, accepted the appointment. Kwan turned up in disguise and injected him with a poison which caused a flesh-eating disease and left him in intensive care.
Kwan, 53, of Brading Court, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tees, who had previously pleaded guilty to administering a noxious substance, was further remanded in custody.
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