NHS vascular surgeon jailed after self-inflicted amputations and insurance fraud

A consultant vascular surgeon who had both legs removed after deliberately damaging them has been sentenced to two years and eight months after admitting fraud and possession of extreme pornography, a court heard.

Truro Crown Court was told the 49-year-old surgeon from Truro, Cornwall, attended hospital in May 2019 having suffered severe damage to both lower legs. He later underwent below-knee amputations. Prosecutors said he had caused the injuries himself by applying ice and dry ice to his limbs, and then falsely claimed to insurers that the damage had been caused by sepsis.

The court heard the surgeon, who had performed hundreds of amputations during his NHS career, admitted two counts of fraud and three counts of possessing extreme pornography. Prosecutor Nicholas Lee told the court that Hopper had a "sexual interest in amputation."

Judge James Adkin, who imposed the sentence, said he accepted that the defendant was remorseful and had no previous convictions. Nevertheless, the judge told the defendant that the "level of harm" in the videos that led to the pornography convictions was "exceptionally high." The sentencing followed guilty pleas to the charges.

The case drew public attention not only because of the facts surrounding the amputations but also because of the way the surgeon had presented his story in public. In a reflection published after the sentence, a BBC journalist who had interviewed the surgeon in 2023 said she had believed his account that a mysterious illness during a family camping trip had led to sepsis and subsequent amputations. She wrote that later evidence and the court hearing revealed the injuries had been self-inflicted.

Court documents and reporting show Hopper worked as a consultant vascular surgeon and had carried out many limb amputation operations before his own amputations. The prosecution case was that he deliberately inflicted frostbite-type injuries by exposing his legs to extreme cold until tissue damage required surgical removal.

The conviction for possessing extreme pornography related to three videos depicting body mutilation. The content and severity of those videos were central to the sentencing remarks.

The surgeon's guilty pleas covered both the dishonesty against insurers and the possession offences. The fraud counts related to false claims made to insurers about the cause of his injuries, while the pornography counts concerned the recorded material recovered during the investigation.

The judge ordered the prison term after considering mitigation, including the defendant's remorse and lack of previous criminal record. Details presented at the hearing focused on the sequence of events in 2019, the subsequent investigation, and the evidence leading to the three pornography offences.

The case has prompted media attention and raised questions about trust in medical professionals, after reports that a journalist who interviewed the surgeon had been convinced by his account at the time. The sentencing highlights both the criminal consequences of fabricating circumstances to insurers and the criminal prohibition on possessing extreme pornographic material depicting serious injury.

No details were provided in court reports about regulatory action by medical authorities in relation to the surgeon's professional registration. The criminal proceedings and sentencing at Truro Crown Court resolve the charges brought by prosecutors in relation to the 2019 amputations and the subsequent possession offences.