By Jeremy Armstrong

Copyright mirror

The second victim of poison plot GP Thomas Kwan feared for his children when he discovered that he had drunk a noxious substance once used to kill rats. Dad-of-four Torquil Gundlach spoke for the first time of how he fell ill after drinking a bottle of vodka which Kwan laced with thallium, banned as a rat poison due to its high toxicity. The once respected family doctor had targeted Torquil’s father-in-law Patrick O’Hara by sending him poisoned bottles of booze from a fake ‘wine and drinks club’. That murderous plan came before Kwan dressed up in disguise as a Covid nurse to administer a poisonous pesticide to Mr O’Hara, then 72, which almost killed him, in a row over Kwan’s inheritance. Patrick unwittingly gave a poisoned bottle of vodka to Torquil, 51, a project manager who fell ill after drinking it. Kwan has pleaded guilty to a second attempt to murder Mr O’Hara, who at the time of the plot was partner of Kwan’s mother Jenny Leung, and administering the noxious substance to Torquil. Scots-born Torquil, 51, a project manager, said: “It was a traumatic time. If anything, I feel sorrow for Thomas Kwan, he has ruined his life and the lives of his family. It was bad enough trying to kill my father in law but he could have killed me and my entire family. I felt poorly the next day after drinking the vodka. “It was so bizarre but I was thinking that if I had drunk more, I could have had a hangover. I only had a couple of drinks of it so it seemed incongruous. “It was in a Smirnoff bottle with the red label. But there was absolutely nothing to show that it had been tampered with.” He added: “I have older kids in the house, they were 15 and 17, they may have had a little nip. “I am lucky they did not, but that was the worry for me, the family more than me. I am a biochemist, I got my degree in it, so when I found out it was thallium I went off and did my research. “It was quite scary. It was just an insane thing to do, that is the right word. What he did, it was abhorrent and the reason he did it was abhorrent. He is obviously seriously disturbed.” Torquil has received counselling over the trauma of his ordeal last year. Details of the fictitious ‘Northern Wine and Drinks Tasting Gentlemen’s Club’ emerged at the trial of Kwan last November. Torquil, who has four children aged 21, 18, 16 and nine, remembered that he still had the vodka gifted to him by Mr O’Hara. He added: “The worry was the family more than me. I am a biochemist, I did my degree in biochemistry, so when I found out it was thallium I went off and did my research and it was quite scary. “They are confident there is no long term damage been done to my health but we are not sure about Patrick as he had a higher dose than I did, they think he is fine now but they continue to monitor him. “He had obviously tried with the alcohol first and that failed and that is what ramped it up with the Covid jab. It was not until the trial with the details of the wine club that it all came to light.” The Mirror told how Kwan had made an offer for a £2m GP’s practice in Torquay, Devon, prior to his murder bid and also had around £1m in his NHS pension. He lived in a property worth around £500,000 in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside which he shared with his wife and young child. As he would have split his mother’s inheritance with his brother, he stood to make around £100,000 from the sale of her property in Newcastle when she died. She had changed her will to allow Mr O’Hara to live there if she had died first. Mr O’Hara has since reconciled with his wife and lives with her at Torquil’s home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. Torquil, originally from just outside Edinburgh, added: “He man was a well off to start off with; with my father in law, he would not lose the house, it would have reverted to him. “Pity is what I feel for him (Kwan), you cannot get angry because it takes too much out of you. You have to be wired differently to do what he did.” Kwan appeared at Newcastle Crown Court via video link from Frankland prison to admit the plan to kill Mr O’Hara after setting up the fake wine club. Kwan, formerly a GP in Sunderland, also admitted administering a noxious substance to Mr Gundlach, which Kwan intended to injure Mr O’Hara. Kwan contacted Mr O’Hara via the fictitious Northern Wine and Drinks Tasting Gentlemen’s Club and sent him between 18 and 21 bottles, some of which were poisoned, the court heard. The plot spanned September 2022 to January 2024, when Kwan carried out his Covid jab plot. Kwan, already serving a minimum 31 and a half years for attempting to murder Mr O’Hara, will be sentenced for the wine club plot on January 30 at Newcastle crown court.