‘Cannibal’ nurse planned to behead then eat girl

Dale Bolingers selfie photo shows the axe he bought at Homebase. Picture: SWNS

Dale Bolinger, 58, bought an axe from a DIY store in Broadstairs, Kent, the day before he planned to meet the girl, whom he groomed online.

He chatted with the teenager, a Mexican girl called “Eva” said to be living in Germany, on a website called the Dark Fetish Network (DFN). In conversations, Bolinger described sex acts he wanted to perform on her and how he would murder her, which she said she wanted to happen.

After a four-day trial at Canterbury Crown Court, Bolinger was yesterday found guilty of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following sexual grooming, after three hours of deliberation by jurors.

Prosecutor Martin Yale told the trial that internet chats involving Bolinger on the DFN site about beheading and eating women and girls were discovered by the FBI in New York.

Investigators discovered the email address [email protected] was being used in Kent, and Bolinger was arrested after the information was passed to Kent Police.

In chats with other users, Bolinger – who used a picture of supermodel Naomi Campbell on his profile – claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old black woman and a five-year-old child, Mr Yale told jurors.

His profile, under the name Chris C, listed his interests as “cannibalism, mainly the hunting and preparation of young but sometimes not so young women”.

Mr Yale read out chat logs between Bolinger and users in which he referred to beheading a 14-year-old, eating children while their mothers watched, and cooking and eating a pregnant woman and her foetus.

Bolinger told the court he did not believe “Eva” – who used the surname “Gonza” but later told him it was “Nada” – was a 14-year-old girl.

He told police he believed “Eva” was probably a man in his 30s “surrounded by pizza boxes” who would be dead by his 40s. And he denied that he would ever decapitate someone in reality.

But Mr Yale said it was clear Bolinger did believe “Eva” was a 14-year-old girl, and he had bragged to others in chat logs about the proposed meeting in Kent with her.

The court heard that Bolinger had taken his fantasies beyond chat rooms before. In July 2010, he put a cloth soaked in dry cleaning fluid over the mouth of a friend, Ms King.

Following his arrest at the hospital where he worked after the emergence of the graphic chat logs, police found at his home indecent pseudo-images of children aged four to 16 which had been digitally manipulated.

The titles for the pictures included “Dinner”, “The BBQ”, “BBQ2” and “BBQ3”. Mr Yale said these pointed to Bolinger’s sexual interest in cannibalism relating to children.

Bolinger was asked by defence counsel Paul Jarvis whether he had ever attempted to kill anyone, eaten human flesh or sexually assaulted a child. He replied: “No, not in reality, just in fantasy.”

In his closing speech, Mr Jarvis said: “We say that when you look at all the evidence, it’s quite clear that Mr Bolinger is far more Walter Mitty than Hannibal Lecter.”

Bolinger was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing to be handed down on Friday, 19 September.