
Warning: This article contains descriptions of self-harm and mutilation that some readers may find distressing
A convicted NHS vascular surgeon whose actions led to the amputation of his own legs after having watched a criminal remove men’s genitals, has been removed from his NHS post.
Neil Hopper, 50, from Cornwall, was sentenced to spend 32 months in prison after his September 2025 trial for freezing his legs after having watched a graphic amputation video.
He was also handed a10-year sexual harm prevention order for insurance fraud for claiming his legs were a result of sepsis, as well as for possessing extreme pornography.
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The investigation into his case led police to make the startling link to the 'Eunuch Maker', aka Marius Gustavso.
It was found that between 21 August, 2018 and 4 December, 2020, Hopper purchased videos from 'The Eunuch Maker' website, which showed men’s genitalia being clamped and removed.

Gustavson was jailed for life for his crimes in 2024, having been found to have performed his illegal operations in London flats and hotel rooms on 'willing customers' that were filmed during the process in a bid to become ‘eunuchs’, hence his nickname.
From 2013, Hopper was an employee at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust until he his March 2023 arrest, and his medical license was suspended.
At the time, a spokesperson for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The charges do not relate to Mr Hopper's professional conduct and there has been no evidence to suggest any risk to patients.
"Former patients with any questions or concerns about their treatment can contact the Royal Cornwall Hospitals' patient experience team."
However, in 2026, Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel sanctioned Hopper to remove him from the medical register.

According to the BBC, tribunal chair Samantha Gray said Hopper posed ‘an extremely high level of risk to public protection with no demonstrable lack insight or remedial behaviour’.
Robert Dudley, representing the General Medical Council, said the videos Hopper had purchased and watched ‘had been conducted to, and had resulted in, serious injury’ to people in the general public.
He said: "It is apparent to the tribunal Hopper was sexually motivated by the videos and by his own amputation."
He added that his watching of Gustavso’s content showed ‘a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of the public', noting that Hopper admitting to having ‘no understanding of the motivations’ for his crimes, made him ‘incomparable’ with being an NHS surgeon