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'Dentist Of Horror' Gets 8 Years For Harming Patients In France

Victims await the start of the trial of Dutch dentist Jacobus Van Nierop on March 8 at the Nevers courthouse in central France. Van Nierop has since been sentenced to eight years behind bars.
Philippe Desmazes
/
AFP/Getty Images
Victims await the start of the trial of Dutch dentist Jacobus Van Nierop on March 8 at the Nevers courthouse in central France. Van Nierop has since been sentenced to eight years behind bars.

A Dutch dentist has been sentenced to eight years behind bars for harming patients in a rural French town. The so-called dentist of horror injured more than 100 patients and committed insurance fraud in Chateau-Chinon, which reportedly had been without a dental care provider for years.

Jacobus Van Nierop, 51, isn't allowed to practice dentistry anymore, and he has to pay about $11,900, according to the BBC.

As the Two-Way has reported, patients accused him of mutilating their mouths — pulling out healthy teeth and performing operations that caused abscesses.

The prosecutor said "useless and painful procedures" were done as part of a scheme for insurance reimbursements, AFP reports.

Prosecutor Lucile Jaillon-Bru also said Van Nierop "took pleasure at causing pain," according to The Guardian. The newspaper also notes that psychiatric evaluations of the dentist varied:

"One found he had 'narcissistic tendencies' and was not responsible for his actions, but another declared Van Nierop 'perfectly aware of what he was doing'."

Van Nierop was arrested in 2013 but was released and fled to Canada. He was found in 2014, extradited and eventually sent back to France for trial.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Dana Farrington is a digital editor coordinating online coverage on the Washington Desk — from daily stories to visual feature projects to the weekly newsletter. She has been with the NPR Politics team since President Trump's inauguration. Before that, she was among NPR's first engagement editors, managing the homepage for NPR.org and the main social accounts. Dana has also worked as a weekend web producer and editor, and has written on a wide range of topics for NPR, including tech and women's health.