Doctor jailed after getting his own legs amputated for ‘sexual fetish,’ then making insurance claim

A British doctor was sentenced to nearly 2 1/2 years behind bars for insurance fraud after claiming his legs were lost due to sepsis — when he actually forced the amputations for sexual gratification, officials said Thursday.

Andrew Neil Hopper, a 49-year-old vascular surgeon at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of possession of extreme pornographic images, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He was sentenced to 32 months in prison by a Truro Crown Court judge and remanded into custody.

Hopper “fraudulently claimed over £466,000 (about $630,000) in insurance payouts” after “he claimed the injuries to his limbs were the result of sepsis,” prosecutors said.

But in reality, Hopper had been packing his legs in ice and dry ice in an act of self-mutilation, authorities said.

The defendant was a paying customer of a since-shuttered website that “sold videos of amputations and body modification, including penises being removed,” CPS said.

“Hopper has a sexual fetish linked to amputation, and paid to access these images for his own gratification,” Senior Crown Prosecutor Richard Parkhouse said in a statement.

“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.”

Hopper used PayPal to buy about 44 pounds of dry ice pellets on April 14, 2019, just three days before paramedics found him at home with serious injuries to his feet and legs, officials said.

After the amputations, Hopper cashed in insurance claims of £235,622.14 (about $318,000) and £231,031.67 (about $312,000) from Avia and Old Mutual Wealth without disclosing “that his injuries were self-inflicted,” CPS said.

Hopper was even profiled on ITV’s “This Morning” and BBC’s “Inside Out West” chronicling his courageous fight to return to work after enduring the sepsis-related amputations.

A representative for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust had previously said there’s no evidence that Hopper’s off-work activities had any impact on patients that he treated.

If you or someone you know is in crisis or considering self harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org.