Disguised as a nurse and armed with a phony "COVID vaccine," a British doctor attempted to kill his own mother's partner, only to see the deadly scheme unravel in court with a sentence of over three decades in prison.
On Wednesday, Thomas Kwan, 53, received a prison sentence of 31 years and five months for attempting to murder his mother's partner in Newcastle, northern England, according to MSN.com.
In an elaborate plot, Kwan posed as a nurse, forged medical records, and disguised himself to administer a toxic injection masked as a COVID-19 vaccine. His victim, Patrick O'Hara, survived but suffered from necrotizing fasciitis, a "potentially fatal flesh-eating bacterial infection," and endured multiple surgeries, revealed the outlet.
Kwan, a family doctor from Sunderland, was taken into custody after pleading guilty to attempted murder and administering a noxious substance shortly after his trial began at Newcastle Crown Court.
In her sentencing, Judge Christina Lambert condemned Kwan's actions, calling it "an audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight" and stating that his abuse of medical knowledge damaged "public confidence in the healthcare profession."
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace cited financial motivations, noting that Kwan was concerned about his mother's will, which "provided that her house would be inherited by O'Hara if he was still alive when his mother died." Makepeace explained that Kwan used "his encyclopedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons" to execute his plan, which involved checking into a hotel under an alias, using false number plates, and wearing a wig as part of his disguise.
Police later discovered castor beans and a recipe for the deadly poison ricin at Kwan's home. Although a chemical expert determined that O'Hara had not been injected with ricin, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the toxin used remains "as-yet unconfirmed."
