Disguised GP jailed for inheritance row poisoning 9 hours ago Duncan Leatherdale BBC News, North East and Cumbria A GP who disguised himself and injected his mother’s partner with a poison in a row over an inheritance has been jailed for 31 years and five months.
Mr O’Hara, who contracted a life-threatening flesh-eating disease which caused horrific injuries, previously told Newcastle Crown Court he had become a “shell” of himself.
Mr O’Hara said he immediately felt an “excruciating pain” but his visitor told him that was a normal reaction, then left in a hurry.
Speaking outside court after the sentencing hearing, Mr O’Hara praised NHS staff who saved his life and said justice had been done.
Mrs Justice Lambert said Mr O’Hara had post-traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks and had broken up with Kwan’s mother.
For poisoning the inheritance row, a disguised general practitioner was released from prison.
Nine hours earlier.
Duncan Leatherdale. .
BBC News, Cumbria and the North East.
After disguising himself and injecting his mother’s partner with poison repeatedly over an inheritance, a general practitioner was sentenced to 31 years and five months in prison.
Thomas Kwan, 53, gave Patrick O’Hara, 71, a toxin injection in Newcastle in January while he was pretending to be a community nurse administering a coronavirus booster shot.
Mr. O’Hara previously told Newcastle Crown Court that he had become a “shell” of himself after injuring himself horribly due to a flesh-eating disease that could have been fatal.
The sentencing judge called Kwan “calculated and callous” after he confessed to attempted murder after the first day of his trial.
The “audacious” attack was planned over several months by the general practitioner, who worked at Happy House Surgery in Sunderland, according to prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC.
His mother, Wai King Leung, also known as Jenny Leung, had made a will in 2021 giving her 21-year-old partner a share in her Newcastle home, the court heard, and he was “obsessed” with money and furious.
Mr. Makepeace claimed that Kwan, a wealthy doctor who lived with his wife and young son in a spacious detached house in Ingleby Barwick, was driven solely by greed.
Years prior, the doctor had tracked his mother’s finances by installing spyware on her computer.
Kwan used several fake letters to arrange a visit to Ms. Leung and Mr. O’Hara’s house on St. Thomas Street on January 22 while pretending to be a community nurse named Raj Patel.
Behind a hat and face mask, he had made a fake ID by tanning his skin and donning a black wig with a fake beard and moustache.
The previous evening, the GP drove to Newcastle in a vehicle equipped with fictitious license plates and stayed at a local hotel using a false identity.
Following his 45-minute visit, in which he conducted health surveys and blood tests while speaking in a broken Asian accent, Kwan gave Mr. O’Hara an injection in the arm.
Mr. O’Hara claimed to have experienced “excruciating pain” right away, but his visitor swiftly left after telling him that was a typical reaction.
When Ms. Leung mentioned that the visitor was the same height as her son, the victim immediately became suspicious.
During Mr. O’Hara’s five weeks at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, medical professionals removed large chunks of diseased flesh in an attempt to prevent the necrotizing fasciitis from spreading past his arm.
After undergoing multiple skin graft procedures, he developed post-traumatic stress disorder and required continuous physical therapy.
Speaking outside of court following the sentencing hearing, Mr. O’Hara declared that justice had been served and thanked NHS personnel for saving his life.
Although several other poisons, including the ingredients for making ricin, were discovered at Kwan’s home along with a plethora of books, recipes, and terrorism manuals about toxins, prosecutors thought he used a pesticide called iodomethane.
Investigators also discovered proof of a “back-up plan” that included free wine and food being sent by a phony charity.
It was described as an “audacious” and well-planned plan to “kill a man in plain sight” by Judge Mrs. Justice Lambert, and it almost succeeded.
She claimed that Mr. O’Hara had no reason to believe his visitor was not real and that Kwan was posing as a community nurse in order to “administer a lethal injection” to his victim.
“Struck at the heart of public confidence” in the NHS, the judge said, adding that Kwan entered Mr. O’Hara’s house “in the most calculated and callous way” and that the letters he forged were “sophisticated.”.
She said that Mr. O’Hara had terrible injuries that required a lot of care, and that doctors were perplexed by his symptoms.
Thankfully, he lived, but he continues to experience the psychological and physical effects of your attempt to murder him.
It is evident that he has changed from the tough, unyielding individual he was prior to the assault. “..”.
Mrs. Justice Lambert claimed that Mr. O’Hara had broken up with Kwan’s mother, suffered from flashbacks, and had post-traumatic stress disorder.
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