Man who amputated his own legs barred from carrying out operations

A Welsh surgeon who froze his own legs so they could be amputated in a twisted fraud has been struck off the medical register. Neil Hopper, 50, tried to swindle insurance companies by claiming his legs had been amputated due to illness rather than self-inflicted injury. He also possessed extreme pornographic images, relating to videos by a website called the EunuchMaker, which depicted genital mutilation. The vascular surgeon from Aberystwyth , who carried out amputations as part of his medical work, was struck off the GMC register after he was sentenced to 32 months in custody and given an 10-year sexual harm prevention order for his crimes. Truro Crown Court heard in September last year that Hopper became obsessed with the thought of removing his own limbs and so used dry ice to freeze his legs to the extent they were no longer viable, requiring amputation. Following the amputation, he told the media, his friends and family that his amputation was due to a case of life-threatening sepsis, and made claims to his insurers which resulted in payouts equating to £466,653.81. In April 2019, while his wife and children were away from home, Hopper decided to cause “irreversible damage to his legs”. He had become obsessed by the thought of his feet being amputated, describing the desire as “persistent, never ending”. The court heard Hopper, who admitted two counts of fraud and three of possessing extreme pornography, had a sexual interest in amputation. His crimes came to light after he was investigated for paying to access a website called EnuchMaker, which sold videos of amputations and body modification, including penises being removed. The website, which has since been shut down, offered paid-for access to videos of convicted criminal Marius Gustavson carrying out extreme body modifications and mutilations on paying customers. Gustavson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years at the Old Bailey in 2024, for leading an extreme body modification ring where he mutilated the bodies of people as young as 16. The Norwegian national once cooked human testicles to eat in a salad, and also 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 EunuchMaker website. He was involved in at least 22 procedures including the removal of victims’ testicles, the amputation of penises, clamping of testicles with burdizzo clips (ordinarily used by vets in the castration of cattle), and the insertion of needles into genitalia. Janus Atkin, David Carruthers, Ashley Williams, Damien Byrne and Jacob Crimi-Appleby were also jailed for their involvement in the enterprise, which carried out these illegal procedures on males as young as 16. Investigators found that Hopper had not only paid to access the website, but had exchanged more than 5,000 messages and emails with Gustavson, including ones in which they discussed the double amputation of Hopper's lower legs. Gustavson provided Hopper with advice and guidance on how to freeze his legs. After Hopper was sentenced in September last year, Richard Parkhouse, of the CPS, said: "This is a highly unusual and shocking case which came to light during an investigation into a website selling extreme images of amputations and body modification. "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." The disgraced doctor worked as a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust in Truro, England, from 2013 until his arrest in March 2023. Hopper has now been struck off the GMC (General Medical Council) register by a tribunal with immediate effect, meaning he is banned from working as a surgeon. Tribunal chair Samantha Gray said the panel had agreed that Hopper posed "an extremely high level of risk to public protection with no demonstrable lack insight or remedial behaviour". Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here . We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice