Surgeon obsessed with amputation porn has legs chopped off for $600K payday: prosecutor

A surgeon with a “sexual obsession” for cutting off parts of his body had his own legs amputated as part of an insurance scam, officials in the UK said on Thursday.

Doctor Neil Hopper, 49, submerged his own legs for eight hours in a combination of ice and dry ice so they would have to be removed, while falsely claiming to his insurers that he had sepsis, prosecutor Nicholas Lee said.

He admitted two counts of insurance fraud and three of possessing extreme pornography at Truro Crown Court, southwest England, BBC News reported.

The British surgeon pocketed more than $600,000 as part of the scam.

The vascular surgeon had carried out hundreds of amputation operations on patients while working for the state-run National Health Service before having his own legs removed in 2019.

Hopper’s scam was motivated both by his “sexual interest in amputation” and “greed,” prosecutor Lee said.

“His motivations were a combination of obsession with removing parts of his own body and a sexual interest in doing so,” he told the judge.

Dr. Neil Hopper had his legs cut off because of his sexual obsession with amputation and to scam insurers, prosecutors said.

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“It seems to have been a long-standing ambition of his,” Lee said, adding that Hopper also “enjoyed” the media attention after his operation led to multiple TV appearances.

Investigations into EunuchMaker, an extreme body mutilation pornography website where Hopper had purchased videos, led to the once-respected doctor’s arrest in March 2023.

Hopper had suffered from body dysphoria since childhood and saw his feet as an “unwelcome extra” and a “persisting never-ending discomfort,” said defence attorney Andrew Langdon.

Hopper submerged his legs in ice and dry ice for eight hours so they would have to be removed, while claiming he had caught sepsis.

His extreme pornography offences were connected to the videos he had purchased online, none of which included children, the judge was told.

Marius Gustavson, who ran the EunuchMaker website, was sentenced to at least 22 years in prison at the Old Bailey in London last year for leading an extreme body modification ring.

Hopper’s fraudulent claims from two insurance firms totaled more than £466,000 ($625,000), which he spent on an RV, home improvements and a hot tub, along with gifts to his wife and other building works, Lee said.

The doctor went back to work less than six months after having his limbs amputated and being fitted with prosthetic legs.

Hopper said he “bitterly regrets” his “dishonesty” over the reason for his amputation, although he didn’t regret having the operation, the disgraced doctor told the judge. [NY Post]