A GP has admitted plotting to kill his mother’s long-term partner by disguising himself as a community nurse and poisoning him with a fake Covidbooster jab.
His victim, Patrick O’Hara, 72, was left with a rare flesh-eating disease as a result of the injection in his arm.
Thomas Kwan, 53, was on trial at Newcastle Crown Court and had initially denied attempted murder, but changed his plea after he heard the prosecution open the case against him.
Police initially thought the married father-of-one used the chemical weapon ricin to try to kill Mr O’Hara at his mother’s home in St Thomas Street, Newcastle, on 22 January but an expert believed a pesticide was more likely.
The Hong Kong-born doctor had developed an “encyclopaedic knowledge” of poisons, the court heard, and he studied how to get away with murder, police discovered from analysis of his home computers.
His actions sparked a major emergency services operation after lethal chemicals were discovered by police at his detached garage at his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teeside.
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