Niamh Shackleton
A surgeon who ended up having his own legs amputated has been jailed.
NHS vascular surgeon Neil Hopper has been jailed for 32 months after admitting fraud relating to the amputation of his own legs and possessing extreme pornography of genital mutilation.
Hopper, 49, pleaded guilty to two charges of fraud by false representation relating to claims totalling £466,653.81 (over $620,000) made to two insurance companies that his legs had been amputated due to illness rather than self-inflicted injury.
He also admitted three charges of possessing extreme pornographic images, relating to videos by a website called the EunuchMaker run by Marius Gustavson, which depicted genital mutilation.
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Gustavson himself was sentenced to life behind bars with a minimum term of 22 years last year. He was known for mutilating paying customers and streaming it online for 'a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward', BBC News reported.
According to Judge James Adkin, Hopper 'deliberately froze his lower legs causing direct damage using dry ice following instructions given by Mr Gustavson' in April 2019.
In addition to fraud, Hopper's said to have caused the self-inflicted injury 'for sexual gratification'.
Speaking yesterday (September 4), the judge said via PA: "You were admitted to hospital when you have the symptoms of sepsis well knowing what the medics will be looking out.
"You were in hospital for six weeks and after many tests and a variety of treatments the medics decided your feet could not be saved and they amputated on May 17 [2019]."
The judge continued: "You subsequently made fraudulent insurance claims to Aviva and Old Mutual Wealth, receiving a total of £466,000 fraudulently by representing that the injuries were organic, caused by sepsis, when you caused the injury seemingly at least in part for sexual gratification."
Echoing similar sentiments, prosecutor Nicholas Lee said that Hopper's motivations were 'a combination of obsession with removing parts of his own body and a sexual interest in doing so'.
"It seems to have been a long-standing ambition of his," Lee added.
Prior to having his own legs removed, Hopper had carried out hundreds of amputation operations as part of his NHS job, said BBC News.
Hopper returned to work less than six months after having his legs removed. It wasn't until December 2023 that we suspended from the medical register following his March 2023 arrest.
He was identified as part of the investigations into Gustavson. The pair are said to have exchanged 1,500 messages about Hopper's lower leg amputations and how he'd done it.