CORNWALL, ENGLAND - The New York Post reports that a British surgeon “obsessed with amputation porn” had his own legs amputated as part of an insurance scam and sexual fetish, UK officials said this week.
The outlet reports that Neil Hopper, 49, a “physician” in England, submerged his legs in a combination of ice and dry ice for eight hours, which resulted in him having to have his legs amputated, then told his insurers he had sepsis, which resulted in their removal, prosecutor Nicholas Lee said.
The BBC reported that Hopper admitted to two counts of insurance fraud and three counts of possession of extreme pornography in Truro Crown Court, located in southwest England.
Hopper, a vascular surgeon, apparently carried out hundreds of amputations on patients during his employment at the state-run National Health Service before having his own legs amputated in 2019.
According to Lee, Hopper’s scam was motivated by both his “sexual interest in amputation” and greed.
“His motivations were a combination of obsession with removing parts of his own body and a sexual interest in doing so,” Lee told the judge.
“It seems to have been a long-standing ambition of his,” Lee added, saying that Hopper also relished the media attention he received after his operation led to numerous TV appearances.
Hopper’s downfall began when investigators started looking into EunuchMaker, an extreme body mutilation pornography website, where Hopper purchased videos. That led to his subsequent arrest in March 2023.
The “doctor” had suffered from something called “body dysphoria” since childhood and believed his feet were an “unwelcome extra” and a “persisting never-ending discomfort,” defense attorney Andrew Langdon told the court.
Prosecutors told the judge Hopper’s pornography offenses were tied to the videos he purchased online, with none including children.
Last year, Marius Gustavson, who ran the EunuchMaker website, was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison in London for leading an extreme body modification ring.
Prosecutors alleged that Hopper’s insurance scam totaled over $625,000, which he used to purchase an RV, home improvements, and a hot tub, along with gifts to his wife and other building works, Lee said.
Hopper returned to work less than six months after he was fitted with prosthetic legs.
Hopper told the court he “bitterly regrets” his “dishonesty” over the reason he had his legs amputated, although he expressed no regret over having the operation.
After he underwent the bogus operation, Hopper said he was “totally overwhelmed by support from friends and family, which made it even more difficult to tell them what had really happened,” he said.
Langdon told the court the crimes came as a “shock” to his loved ones.
“He [Hopper] has been committed to working [in] the service of others. The whole saga is very difficult to comprehend,” he said.
Hopper was pulled from the medical register in December 2023, the National Health Service said.
Hopper was sentenced to 22 months in jail on the two fraud counts and 10 months on the three counts of accessing extreme pornography. The sentences will run concurrently, meaning Hopper will be in jail a total of 32 months.
Comments