He had his legs amputated to collect insurance: the aberrant case of the British surgeon who was convicted of fraud

In April 2019, Neil Hopper, who performed amputations on his patients as a surgeon , used dry ice to deliberately freeze his lower legs. The action caused irreversible damage and led to sepsis. On September 4, he was sentenced to 32 months in prison by the Tutro court in Cornwall, southwest England.

Hopper then went to a hospital, where he was admitted with serious symptoms, but he did not inform doctors of what had been done, “knowing full well what the doctors were looking for,” Judge James Adkin found.

On May 17, 2019, after several evaluations, specialists decided to amputate both of his legs below the knee.

Following the operation, Hopper filed claims with various insurance companies totaling 466,000 pounds (approximately 2.5 billion Colombian pesos), claiming the amputation was due to sepsis and without disclosing that he had self-inflicted the injuries.

The former doctor admitted to two counts of fraud by making false statements to insurance companies and three counts of possession of extreme pornographic images. Judge Adkin noted that Hopper acted "at least in part to obtain sexual gratification."

According to the prosecution, Hopper was a regular on the website EunuchMaker , run by Norwegian citizen Marius Gustavson, who was sentenced to life in prison in London in 2023. The website promoted and shared genital mutilations and self-amputations in exchange for payment.

“It's clear from the messages that Mr. Hopper wanted to become an amputee and that it had always been something he had dreamed of,” said prosecutor Nicholas Lee, who emphasized that “it was something that obsessed him and that he had a sexual interest in becoming an amputee.”

The investigation revealed that Hopper exchanged messages with Gustavson about the amount of dry ice needed for his plan and that he also purchased several videos of extreme genital mutilation, which also led to his conviction for possession of prohibited pornography.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed a ten-year sexual harm prevention order on Hopper. The judge specified that he must serve at least 40% of the sentence before being eligible for parole.

The defense argued that Hopper had been born "in the wrong body" and wanted to be a woman. At the time of the incident, he was married with two children. However, the court determined that the relevant factors were the intent to commit fraud and the sexual motivation linked to the amputations.

*This content was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on information from EFE. It was also reviewed by the journalist and an editor.