'Dentist of horror' Jacobus van Nierop jailed for eight years
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Version 0 of 1. A Dutch man nicknamed the “dentist of horror”, who mutilated more than 100 patients, has been jailed for eight years by a French court. Jacobus van Nierop, 51, pulled out healthy teeth, broke patients’ jaws, and caused abscesses and blood poisoning in often unnecessary and painful procedures, judges were told during his trial in March. He was charged with aggravated assault on vulnerable people and fraud over claims he tried to get money from patients and insurance companies between 2009 and 2012. As well as the prison term, Van Nierop was banned for life from practising as a dentist. Van Nierop, who called himself Mark, was welcomed to the rural area of Château-Chinon in 2008, after locals complained of a dearth of medical services. Criticisms of his treatment soon grew. Nicole Martin, a retired teacher, lost several teeth to abscesses caused by operations carried out under general anaesthetic. “When it was over, we would find a Post-it note saying to come back for an appointment the next day or the day after,” she said. Sylviane Boulesteix, 65, saw Van Nierop in March 2012 to have braces fitted. “He gave me seven or eight injections, and pulled out eight teeth in one go. I was gushing blood for three days,” she told the court. Martin set up a victims’ group in early 2013 to press charges, and it soon grew to 120 members. Van Nierop was arrested in June 2013, but fled France pending trial. He was traced to a small town in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick and arrested under an international arrest warrant in September 2014. Locals said he tried to cut his throat when police arrived. He fought his extradition, claiming he was suffering from “psychological problems” and was suicidal, but was sent to a psychiatric unit in a jail in the Loiret region, south of Paris. He was not required to plea under French law. French psychiatrists have disagreed on his state of mind; 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”. State prosecutor Lucile Jaillon-Bru had requested an eight-year prison sentence for Van Nierop, who she said “took pleasure at causing pain”. Jaillon-Bru told the trial in Nevers that the dentist carried out “useless and painful procedures” on about 100 patients, then had them reimbursed by the patients’ medical insurance. |