Poison GP Thomas Kwan admits second murder attempt

A former GP serving a prison sentence for trying to kill his mother’s partner with a toxic injection has admitted a second attempt to murder the same man.

Thomas Kwan, 54, was previously jailed for more than 31 years after admitting injecting Patrick O’Hara with a poison at the victim’s home in Newcastle.

Kwan, who worked in Sunderland and lived in Ingleby Barwick, has now admitted sending bottles of wine laced with thallium to Mr O’Hara in the months before the January 2024 murder attempt.

Appearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Kwan also admitted administering thallium intended for Mr O’Hara to another man, Torquil Gundlach. Sentencing was set for 30 January.

Kwan wore a disguise when he went to the home shared by his mother and Mr O’Hara on 22 January 2024 and injected his victim with a pesticide under the guise of giving a coronavirus booster jab, the court had previously heard.

When he was jailed, it was determined Kwan was motivated by greed and saw Mr O’Hara as an impediment to inheriting his mother’s home.

At his latest court date, Kwan, who appeared via video link from HMP Frankland, spoke only to admit the two new charges.

The court heard between 15 September 2022 and 21 January 2024, Kwan sent between 18 and 21 packages to Mr O’Hara containing bottles of wine from a company called The Northern Wine and Drinks Tasting Gentlemen’s Club.

Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC said there was no such firm and a number of the bottles were laced with thallium, a toxic substance.

He said two had been tested and found to contain the toxin, while Mr O’Hara had drunk a third that caused symptoms consistent with thallium poisoning.

The remaining bottles had not been recovered, Mr Makepeace said.

He said the origin of the packages was “deliberately disguised and hidden” and there could be “no legitimate reason” for Kwan to send the parcels.

His previous trial, which was aborted on the second day after Kwan changed his plea to guilty, heard police found letters Kwan had created on his computer from the fictitious wine tasting cub.

At the time it was said to be a “back-up plan” to kill Mr O’Hara.

Kwan’s January 2024 murder attempt had been preceded by him sending letters to Mr O’Hara purporting to be from an NHS community nurse offering the victim a medical check-up at home.

The GP had created a false identity for himself under the name Raj Patel, including an identity card in which he wore a disguise.

On the morning of 22 January 2024, having spent the previous night in a Newcastle hotel under a fake name, Kwan wore a cap, face mask and dark glasses and spoke with a fake accent when he went to Mr O’Hara’s home and, after a 40-minute long medical examination, injected him with iodomethane.

Mr O’Hara immediately felt excruciating pain which Kwan claimed was just an allergic reaction before making a hasty exit.

The victim ended up spending five weeks in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary after the toxin caused necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease, which led to large parts of his arm being removed.