A British doctor on Monday pleaded guilty to an unsuccessful plot to kill his mother’s partner with a fake COVID-19 vaccine.

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.

Prosecutors said Mr O’Hara survived but suffered from necrotising fasciitis, a potentially fatal flesh-eating bacterial infection, after receiving the jab.

Mr Kwan, a family doctor in Sunderland, pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Monday shortly after his trial began at Newcastle Crown Court.

He had previously admitted a charge of administering a noxious substance.

Prosecutor Peter Makepeace had told jurors on the first day of the trial on Thursday: “Sometimes, occasionally perhaps, the truth is stranger than fiction.’’

He said Mr Kwan was concerned about his mother’s will, which provided that Mr O’Hara would inherit her house if he were still alive when she died.

“Mr Kwan used his encyclopedic knowledge of, and research into, poisons to carry out his plan,’’ Mr Makepeace said.

“That plan was to disguise himself as a community nurse, attend Mr O’Hara’s address, the home he shared with the defendant’s mother, and inject him with a dangerous poison under the pretext of administering a Covid booster injection.’’

Mr. Makepeace added that Mr. 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.

(Reuters/NAN)