Dr Thomas Kwan was beaten up in prison before he admitted attempting to murder his mum’s partner. The GP disguised himself as a Covid nurse in his bid to kill Patrick O’Hara
Evil GP Thomas Kwan was beaten up in prison before he admitted attempting to murder his mum’s partner.
The doctor disguised himself as a Covid nurse in his bid to kill Patrick O’Hara in a dispute over his mum’s will. Patrick, then 72, almost died after Dr Kwan gave him the fake jab laced with a potentially lethal insecticide.
He had initially attempted to kill him with booze laced with the rat poison thallium, a court heard earlier this month. In so doing, he almost killed Patrick’s son-in-law, Torquil Gundlach, 51, who told of his horror at the plot.
Mr Gundlach told the Mirror how he feared for his children when he discovered that he had a poisoned bottle of vodka in his home. Patrick had given Torquil the Smirnoff vodka sent by Kwan from a fake ‘gentlemen’s wine and drink club’.
Thomas Kwan in disguise(Image: Northumbria Police.)
Kwan was beaten up while on remand for attempted murder and ended up in HMP Hull, a two-hour drive from his home in Ingleby Barwick. He has now been moved to Frankland prison in Durham.
“Kwan was badly injured, his face was purple and swollen,” a source told the Mirror. “He said that is why he changed his plea to guilty to attempted murder. He told his family that he wanted to get it over with.”
Thomas Kwan(Image: The Gazette)
Kwan is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 31 and a half years. He will have time added to that sentence after admitting the second attempt to murder Mr O’Hara, and his poisoning of Mr Gundlach.
He will not be able to apply for parole until he is 73 years old. His wife is standing by him, however.
In an interview after he was jailed for life last year, she told the Mirror: “I feel so sorry for Tom, that is why I will wait for him and give him a good life in the end.
“I don’t believe that he intended to kill. I really cannot find a man to compare to Tom, in his heart he is very, very good.
Dr Thomas Kwan(Image: PA)
“I don’t blame him, I love him, trust him, and will be here for him until the end.
“I am going to be buried alongside him. I tell my son everything so he will understand his dad ” She added: “If I leave him, his life will be too sad, I cannot do that to him.”
Kwan wanted to buy a £2m GP’s practice in Torquay, Devon, prior to his murder bid and also had around £1m in his NHS pension. He lived in a £500,000 detached property in Ingleby Barwick on Teesside, which he shared with his wife and young child.
Kwan’s former home(Image: PA)
As he would have split his mother’s inheritance with his brother, his share of her property in Newcastle was worth an estimated £100,000.
She had changed her will to allow Mr O’Hara to live there if she had died first. Mr O’Hara has since reconciled with his wife and lives with her at Torquil’s home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson confirmed Kwan, who was a GP in Sunderland, had received minor injuries after the incident.
