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'Cannibal' nurse guilty of grooming underage girl 'Cannibal' nurse guilty of grooming underage girl
(about 1 hour later)
A nurse with a cannibalism fetish has been found guilty of trying to meet a 14-year-old girl after sexually grooming her online and promising to behead and eat her. An NHS nurse has been found guilty of trying to meet a 14-year-old girl he had sexually groomed and promised to kill and eat in a case that began with a tipoff from the FBI.
Dale Bolinger, 58, bought an axe from a DIY store in Broadstairs, Kent, the day before he planned to meet the girl. Dale Bolinger, 58, was found guilty after a four-day trial at Canterbury crown court. He sat in the dock with his head bowed and did not react as jurors delivered a guilty verdict to a charge of attempting to meet a girl under 16 following sexual grooming.
He chatted with the Mexican teenager called "Eva", said to be living in Germany, on a website called the Dark Fetish Network. 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. Bolinger chatted with the teenager, a Mexican girl known as "Eva" said to be living in Germany, on a website called the Dark Fetish Network (DFN). The father of three told Eva: "The idea of us 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."
After a four-day trial and three hours of jury deliberation at Canterbury crown court, Bolinger was found guilty of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following sexual grooming. The day before he was due to meet his alleged victim, Bolinger – who worked as a registered nurse at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate – bought an axe in Broadstairs, Kent, and told the girl that all she needed to do was get on a train. But jurors heard that Eva, whose identity has never been uncovered, failed to show up at Ashford International station as planned.
In online chats, the father of three told "Eva": "The idea of us 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." Bolinger was arrested in February in 2013 after leads from the FBI, which was investigating offences of conspiracy to kidnap, rape, cook and eat women by Gilberto Valle, a former New York police officer. In the course of their investigation, the FBI discovered the email address meatmarketman@rocketmail.com, which was being accessed from a computer in Kent. The information was passed to local police.
The night before their meeting Bolinger, who worked as a registered NHS nurse at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in Margate, told the girl: "Got the axe, you ready to get that train?" The account was traced to Bolinger and police searched his home, where they found computer discs containing indecent images of children. Bolinger admitted the images were his but said he had gone to Ashford station only because he feared for the girl's personal safety after their conversations. He claimed that if she had arrived he would have gone to the police.
But jurors heard that "Eva", whose true identity has not been revealed, failed to show up at Ashford international railway station as planned. Prosecutor Martin Yale said one image featured a girl aged between six and nine lying naked on a serving plate with an apple in her mouth. When questioned about the images, Bolinger told police: "I do not find children sexually attractive but I do find them interesting as a food source."
Before the trial, Bolinger admitted other charges, including administering a poison or noxious substance after he put a cloth soaked in drycleaning fluid over his friend Urlene King's mouth in July 2010. He pleaded guilty to one count of making indecent pseudo photographs of children, and seven counts of publishing an obscene article. Bolinger was asked by defence counsel Paul Jarvis whether he had ever attempted to kill anyone, eaten human flesh or sexually assaulted a child.
Judge Adele Williams adjourned sentencing until 19 September after asking for a psychiatric and a pre-sentence report to be prepared to "assess the level of risk the defendant poses to the public". He replied: "No, not in reality, just in fantasy."
In police interviews, Bolinger said he started having fantasies about cannibalism at about the age of six, and he blamed his "very domineering" mother for his "weird" behaviour.
He told officers: "By the time I got to 14, I turned into the villain of the piece and I wondered what it would be like to eat a girl."
In his closing speech, 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. He is a fantasist and sometimes he goes too far and sometimes he stops, and sometimes – when the person encourages him – the fantasy continues."
DI Rob Chitham of Kent police said after Bolinger's conviction: "This was a long and complicated investigation because much of the evidence was in the US. In addition, the people who use fetish chatrooms go to great lengths to hide their identity, and specialist knowledge and equipment is needed to determine who they are and where they live. We worked closely with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in America to identify one of the chatroom users as Mr Bolinger."
Judge Adele Williams adjourned sentencing until 19 September after asking for a psychiatric and a pre-sentence report to be prepared to assess the level of risk Bolinger poses to the public.
Bolinger will be sentenced for attempting to groom a child under 16 for sexual purposes and for charges previously admitted of administering a noxious substance (cleaning fluid), to a woman in 2010, two counts of possessing obscene pictures of children under 16, and seven charges of writing obscene articles.