A British court jailed a National Health Service surgeon, with a sexual interest in amputation, for two years and eight months after he had his legs amputated in 2019.
The vascular surgeon, 49-year-old Neil Hopper, was found guilty of insurance fraud and the possession of extreme pornography.
Truro Crown Court heard that Hopper had falsely claimed to his insurer that his legs suffered wounds as a result of sepsis, not self-inflicted injury.
While he had claimed that a mystery illness had led to his below-knee amputations, prosecutor Nicholas Lee explained that Hopper used ice and dry ice to freeze his legs so they had to be removed.
Before seeing his own legs removed, Hopper had performed hundreds of amputations.
Judge James Adkin said in sentencing that he accepted that Hopper was remorseful, but stressed that the “level of harm” in the three pornography videos was extreme.
Hopper’s fraudulent insurance claims from two separate firms totalled more than £466,000 (approximately NIS 2,096,908), the court heard.
The court was also told that Hopper had messaged a friend about the insurance claims, saying he should “milk it,” and that he “enjoyed” the media attention on his case.
"His motivations were a combination of obsession with removing parts of his own body and a sexual interest in doing so," Lee said. "It seems to have been a long-standing ambition of his.”
Body amputation ring
Police were alerted to Hopper following investigations into the "eunuch maker' Marius Gustavson. Hopper had purchased videos of men willingly having their genitals amputated.
Police also discovered more than 1,000 messages exchanged between Hopper and Gustavson discussing below-the-knee amputations.