An NHS vascular surgeon who was sexually “obsessed” with becoming an amputee used dry ice to freeze his legs to the point they needed to be removed then claimed £466,653 from his insurers.
Neil Hopper, 49, who carried out hundreds of amputations for patients, has been jailed for 32 months after he admitted to lying to insurers over the removal of his own legs and possessing extreme pornography from a man dubbed the "Eunuch Maker".
The surgeon told insurers that his injuries were the “result of sepsis and were not self-inflicted”, when in fact he had used dry ice to freeze his legs to the extent they needed to be amputated below the knee.
He then made claims to two insurers which resulted in total payouts of £466,653.81.
Appearing at Truro Crown Court on Thursday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation between 3 June and 26 June 2019.
He also admitted three charges of possessing extreme pornographic images, relating to videos by a website called the Eunuch Maker, where users paid for films of amputations and other extreme body modifications.
Judge James Adkin, the honorary recorder of Truro, heard Hopper was identified following investigations into Marius Gustavson who ran the site.
Gustavson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years at the Old Bailey last year for leading an extreme body modification ring, which carried out male castration, penis removal and other procedures on people as young as 16.
The Norwegian national once cooked human testicles to eat in a salad, had his own penis removed with a kitchen knife and froze his own leg so it was amputated.
Gustavson netted more than £300,000 between 2017 and 2021 after posting videos of various procedures on his Eunuch Maker website.
Nicholas Lee, prosecuting, told the court that Hopper had bought three videos from the EunuchMaker.com website for £10 and £35, respectively, showing men willingly having their genitals removed.
He also exchanged around 1,500 messages with Gustavson about his own lower leg amputations and how he had done it, including asking how much dry ice he used.
"It is evident from the messages that Mr Hopper wished to become an amputee and it was always something he had dreamt of," Mr Lee said.
"Something he has been obsessed with and had a sexual interest in becoming an amputee."
Gustavson told Hopper he needed to immerse his legs in ice and dry ice for at "least eight hours" and would also require prescription painkillers, which he bought from the dark web.
Investigators later found Hopper had purchased 20kg of dry ice pellets on 14 April 2019. The following day he placed his feet in them at his home in St Erme while his wife and children were away.
While doing this he continued to message Gustavson, telling him: "It's going to be awesome being a double amputee."
Days later he was found unwell and taken to hospital, telling doctors who treated him for sepsis that he had been unwell with diarrhoea and vomiting. His feet were amputated on 10 May, before surgeons carried out a further operation to remove his legs below the knees a week later.
He later took a photo of his bandaged feet and sent it to Gustavson with the message: “It feels so cool. No feet!”
Andrew Langdon KC, mitigating, told the court Hopper had grown up in a rural village in Wales and felt he was in the wrong body from a young age.
"He was troubled by his gender, he wanted to be female," Mr Langdon said, adding that his client identified with body integrity identity disorder and those with a desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs.
Hopper experienced "persistent, never ending" thoughts about having his feet amputated before he decided to cause "irreversible damage to his legs".
"He knows in the days and weeks that followed, he let himself down in the most shameful way," Mr Langdon said.
The barrister said Hopper insists his thoughts and behaviour have not had an impact on his job and he always tried his best for his patients.
Jailing him for 32 months, Judge Adkin told Hopper he would also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.
He said Hopper had “deliberately” frozen his legs following the instructions from Gustavson, before he was admitted to hospital with sepsis in 2019.
"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 17 May,” the judge said.
"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."
The Crown Prosecution Service will make an application under the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover the money.
Senior prosecutor Richard Parkhouse said it was a “highly unusual and shocking case”, adding: “Hopper has a sexual fetish linked to amputation, and paid to access these images for his own gratification.
“In his communications with the owner of the website, the truth about Hopper’s own injuries was revealed: that the damage that led to his double leg amputations had been self-inflicted. Hopper failed to disclose this fact when making two insurance claims for his injuries, and fraudulently pocketed almost half a million pounds.”
In 2020, Hopper was named one of the bravest people in Britain after winning the Against All Odds title at the Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons 2020, in a virtual ceremony hosted by BBC Breakfast.
The surgeon has not worked at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) since March 2023 and he has been suspended from the medical register.
The NHS trust said his work as a surgeon has been investigated, including by an independent clinical expert who has reviewed decisions to operate and found no evidence of “any risk or harm” to patients.
However a law firm specialising in medical negligence has called for an independent public investigation into his conduct.
Mike Bird, a partner at Enable Law, said the charges have caused “shock and grave concern” among former patients, adding: “Some have had life-changing surgery and are now worried it was not really needed.”
A spokesperson for RCHT added: "While the details of the charges are shocking, it is important to stress that the convictions do not relate to Mr Hopper's professional conduct.
"During a thorough and painstaking police investigation there were no links found to any patients he treated during his work."
