Cannibalism fetish nurse plotted to behead 14-year-old girl after sex, court hears

Dale Bolinger bought an axe from Homebase and went to meet girl at Ashford station, jurors told

Dale Bolinger arriving at Canterbury Crown Court in Kent, where he denies one count of attempting to meet a child under the age of 16 following sexual grooming (Gareth Fuller/PA Wire )

A male nurse with a fetish for cannibalism bought an axe from Homebase and planned to use it to chop up and eat a 14-year-old girl he had met on the internet, a court heard today.

Dale Bolinger, 57, discussed beheading and eating women and girls for sexual gratification on the Dark Fetish Network (DFN) website, Canterbury Crown Court was told. Martin Yale, prosecuting, told the jury he planned to put the fetish into practice on “Eva”, a Mexican teenager living in Germany.

During a series of internet chats in 2012, Mr Bolinger told the girl: “The idea of making love and then eating you is a very great turn on. I have been called a very generous lover and I would be very generous to you before I prepped you for the table.”

Mr Yale said the pair also talked about Eva’s death and “she responded that she would like this to happen”. He continued: “Bolinger discussed buying an axe and referred her to pictures of axes on the internet and they discussed them. He said he would murder her with an axe or a cleaver and then he would eat her.”

Eventually, Mr Bolinger suggested that the pair met at Ashford International railway station. The court heard that he used his debit card to buy an axe from Homebase in Broadstairs, Kent, on 17 September 2012, before writing a message to Eva which read: “Got the axe, you ready to get that train?”

Mr Yale said that mobile phone records from the following day showed that Mr Bolinger was in the Ashford area between 11.56am and 12.08pm. But the teenager, whose identity has never been established, did not arrive and he returned home.

The chat logs were discovered by the New York field office of the FBI, which had been investigating online discussions around the rape, killing and cannibalism of women. They noticed that a suspicious email address was being accessed by a computer in Kent and passed the information to local police, who traced the account to Mr Bolinger.

After arresting him, officers seized his phones and searched his home in Canterbury, discovering a photo of him posing with an axe in front of a mirror. They also found computer discs containing indecent images of children which had titles including “dinner; one in, one waiting; the BBQ; the BBQ2 and the BBQ3”.

Mr Bolinger later admitted the images were his, but said he had only gone to the train station because he was worried about the girl’s personal safety given the type of conversations they had had, the court heard. He claimed that if she had arrived, he would have gone straight to police.

The court heard that Mr Bolinger sent images he had taken of himself posing with an axe to another DFN member called “Hannah Hotwife”, telling her he was going to behead someone. He also claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old black woman and a five-year-old child during chats with other users, Mr Yale said.

“There were discussions about how much more tender the meat is from children,” Mr Yale said. “During some of the conversations, Bolinger comments about sexual arousal, clearly showing that he received sexual gratification from his fantasies about cannibalism.”

Mr Bolinger is charged with one count of attempting to meet a child under the age of 16 following sexual grooming, which he denies. The trial continues.