Disguised as a nurse

Doctor injected stepfather with carnivorous poison

Not even the defendant's mother, Thomas Kwan, recognized her son in this disguise.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/AFP/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA, Polizei Northumbria)

A British doctor has devised a perfidious plan to eliminate a potential heir to his mother's estate: Disguised as a nurse, he allegedly injected his mother's partner with a poison that caused the victim to develop a rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease. 

"Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction," explained the public prosecutor at the opening of the trial against 53-year-old Thomas Kwan. The general practitioner is accused of disguising himself as a nurse with a wig, moustache and chin beard.

Victim thought he was getting coronavirus vaccine
In this disguise, he injected his mother's partner, Patrick O'Hara (71), with a poison - the victim believed that he had been given a coronavirus booster vaccination during the "nurse's" home visit. This is why Kwan has to stand trial for attempted murder in New Castle.

The accused was apparently after money. His mother's long-time partner was a "potential obstacle" to him inheriting her fortune. "It was his plan to murder the man in front of everyone, right in front of his own mother, the man's partner," prosecutor Peter Makepeace told the jury.

In this video you can see how Kwan in his disguise was also recorded by a video surveillance camera: 

For his complicated plan, Kwan pretended in letters to be from the British National Health Service and offered the victim an appointment for a corona vaccination. He then disguised himself: "Of course he had to do that. What he's going to do now, he's going to do in front of his own mother, in front of a man who knew him and whom he knows," the prosecutor said.

Mother even had her blood pressure taken by "nurse"
And indeed: neither his mother nor her partner recognized the now accused with his surgical gloves, mask and tinted glasses when he appeared for his "home visit". The couple didn't have the slightest suspicion - and didn't even ask for the man's ID. The mother even had her blood pressure taken by the "nurse", unaware that she was sitting opposite her son.

Arm full of blisters the next day
When O'Hara received the vaccination, he immediately felt "terrible pain" - but the nurse assured him that this was normal. But the pain got worse and worse, and the next day O'Hara's arm was full of blisters and discolored. His family doctor sent him to hospital - but the doctors there initially had no idea what was wrong with the 73-year-old.

Eventually, it turned out that O'Hara was suffering from a rare and life-threatening disease called necrotizing fasciitis. A bacterial infection in which the affected tissue dies off. Parts of his arm had to be removed and the patient had to spend weeks in intensive care. The police finally caught up with the son-in-law. Various chemicals were discovered in his garage, including liquid mercury, thallium, sulphuric acid and arsenic.

Although Kwan admitted to administering a harmful substance, he claimed that he had only wanted to cause his victim "slight pain or discomfort". The prosecution, on the other hand, believes it was attempted murder - the trial will continue, according to the Guardian.