A former NHS surgeon, Dr Neil Hopper, who amputated his own legs as part of a sexual fantasy has been removed from the General Medical Council (GMC) register and banned from practising medicine.

Hopper used dry ice to freeze both legs, causing severe injuries that eventually led to their amputation.

He later falsely claimed the amputations resulted from sepsis he developed after a family camping trip.

The former consultant vascular surgeon at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro admitted last year to two counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.

The court heard that Hopper fraudulently obtained more than £466,000 from insurance companies by claiming the amputations were medically necessary.

During proceedings at Truro Crown Court in September, prosecutors revealed that Hopper deliberately froze his legs with dry ice in 2019, causing damage so severe that both limbs had to be amputated.

Investigators said he carried out the act to satisfy a sexual fantasy.

Evidence presented in court showed that he had purchased and viewed amputation-related pornography from an illegal website known as ‘The Eunuch Maker’.

Hopper, who previously carried out amputations as part of his medical duties, deceived two insurance firms and received £466,653 after falsely claiming sepsis was responsible for the loss of his legs.

Following his conviction, a GMC tribunal ordered his immediate removal from the medical register, preventing him from working as a surgeon.

In its ruling, the tribunal concluded that Hopper “poses a risk to patient safety’, adding that the ban would ‘maintain public confidence in the medical profession”, The Sun reported.

The employment tribunal noted that the convict, who is still in prison, had “made no substantive submissions objecting to the imposition of an immediate order”.

The panel added: “This means that Dr Hopper’s registration will be suspended from today.

“The substantive direction, as already announced, will take effect 28 days from the date when written notification is deemed to have been served upon him, unless an appeal is made in the interim.

“If an appeal is made, the immediate order will remain in force until the appeal has concluded.”

Authorities uncovered Hopper’s insurance fraud after investigations linked him to a website called EnuchMaker, where users paid to access videos showing amputations and other extreme body modification procedures, including genital removal.

The platform, which has since been shut down, featured videos of Marius Gustavson carrying out extreme body modification procedures on paying customers.

Six men — Marius Gustavson, Janus Atkin, David Carruthers, Ashley Williams, Damien Byrne and Jacob Crimi-Appleby — were later jailed for their roles in the operation, which involved male castration, penis removal and other ‘grisly’ procedures carried out on males as young as 16. (Daily Mail)

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