A British doctor pleaded guilty to trying in vain His mother’s partner was killed With a fake Covid-19 vaccine, wearing a bold disguise and forging medical documents in the process.
Cowan, 53, admitted in a British court on Monday that he tried to kill Patrick O’Hara with a toxic substance that caused a “rare, life-threatening disease.” The attack took place at the victim’s home in Newcastle on January 22, and followed an inheritance dispute.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Cowan’s elaborate scheme began in November last year, when Forged letter to his victim, claiming that O’Hara’s age qualified him for a home visit from a nurse at the address he shared with Cowan’s mother.
“This was followed by another letter, stating that a vaccine appointment had been scheduled with a member of his home nursing team. The nursing home team was itself a work of fiction, created by Cowan to facilitate his scheme,” CPS wrote in a press release.
When it came time to make the vaccine appointment, Cowan showed up in disguise — a thick, dark wig layered over his shaved hair, complete with a fake poker-style mustache and beard.
Thomas Cowan in his elaborate disguise.
Northumbria Police/Facebook
Reuters reported that prosecutor Peter Makepeace told jurors on the first day of the trial, last Thursday: “Sometimes, and perhaps sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.”
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He said Cowan was concerned about his mother’s will, which stipulated that O’Hara would inherit her house if he were still alive when his mother died.
“Mr. Cowan used his encyclopedic knowledge and research on poisons to carry out his plan,” 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 on the pretext of giving a Covid booster shot.”
Makepeace said Cowan also used a vehicle with false license plates and disguised himself in head-to-toe protective gear, tinted glasses and a surgical mask to visit the home in Newcastle.
“As I suspect, have any of us, Mr. O’Hara, fallen for hook, line and sinker,” the prosecutor said.
The next day, O’Hara began to feel sick, feeling pain and blisters on his arm that prompted him to go to the hospital. There he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis and doctors amputated part of his arm. He spent several weeks recovering in intensive care.
The poison Cowan injected into O’Hara remains unidentified, although prosecutors suspect it was an insecticide.
Christopher Atkinson, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said Cowan refused to identify the poison, “allowing the victim’s health to deteriorate further”.
He added: “Although the attempt to assassinate his victim failed, its effects were still disastrous.”
Within two days of committing the crime, Cowan was arrested. Police say they found a “poison manual” and a book on homicide investigation guidelines downloaded on his computer.
Cowan will face sentencing in the future.
— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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