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'Dentist of horror' Jacobus van Nierop jailed in France | 'Dentist of horror' Jacobus van Nierop jailed in France |
(35 minutes later) | |
A Dutchman dubbed the "dentist of horror" has been sentenced to eight years in France for mutilating the mouths of some 120 patients. | |
Jacobus van Nierop, 51, "took pleasure" in causing horrific injuries to patients in the small central town of Chateau-Chinon, prosecutors said. | |
He was banned from practising dentistry and fined €10,500 (£8,140; $11,900). | |
Van Nierop fled to Canada when suspicions arose and strongly fought extradition to France in 2014. | |
The court in the central French town of Nevers heard that patients had suffered broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia from van Nierop's work. | |
Prosecutor Lucile Jaillon-Bru said van Nierop had carried out "useless and painful procedures". | |
She said his aim had been to earn money through medical insurance schemes and to take "pleasure at causing pain" in his patients. | |
'Larger than life' | |
Van Nierop was arrested in France in June 2013, after the number of his victims passed 100. | |
However, he fled the country before his trial was due to start in December that year. | |
He was tracked to a small town in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and arrested under an international warrant. | |
Van Nierop was many people's worst nightmare, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says. | |
Like many parts of rural France, Chateau-Chinon is badly served for medical provision, our correspondent says, adding that locals initially seemed delighted by the hard-working and smiley dentist, a larger-than-life character who witnesses said was rarely seen without his "big 4x4, a big dog and a big cigar". | |
But then the horror stories began. People said they had had teeth ripped out for no reason - they had been given heavy anaesthetic, then left with abscesses and infected gums. |