British doctor admits trying to kill mother's partner with fake Covid jab

A British doctor on Monday (October 7) pleaded guilty to an audacious but unsuccessful plot to kill his mother's partner with a fake COVID-19 vaccine, which involved him forging medical documents and dressing in disguise to inject his victim with poison. Thomas Kwan, 53, passed himself off as a nurse and even took his own mother's blood pressure before administering poison to her partner Patrick O'Hara in Newcastle, northern England. O'Hara survived but suffered from necrotizing fasciitis, a potentially fatal flesh-eating bacterial infection, after receiving the jab, prosecutors said. Kwan, a family doctor in Sunderland, pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Monday shortly after his trial began at Newcastle Crown Court last week, court staff said. He had previously admitted a charge of administering a noxious substance. Kwan will be sentenced on Oct. 17. Prosecutor Peter Makepeace had told jurors on the first day of the trial on Thursday: "Sometimes, occasionally perhaps, the truth really is stranger than fiction." He said 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. Kwan checked into a hotel under a false name, used false number plates on his car and disguised himself with a wig to carry out the plan, Makepeace added. Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said O'Hara had been injected with "an as-yet unconfirmed toxin, causing life-changing injuries." -Report from Reuters