Canterbury cannibal jailed for grooming 14-year-old he plotted to behead and eat

Dale Bolinger, dubbed the 'Canterbury Cannibal', was jailed todayDale Bolinger, dubbed the 'Canterbury Cannibal', took a selfie with his new axe [PA/SWNS]

Dale Bolinger, bought an axe from a DIY store in Broadstairs, Kent, the day before he had planned to meet the young girl at Ashford International rail station.

The 58-year-old met the teenager, a Mexican girl called "Eva" said to be living in Germany, on a website called the Dark Fetish Network (DFN).

The pair continued to chat online and Bolinger began grooming her, describing sexual acts he wanted to perform on her.

He also told her how he planned to kill her – something she said she wanted.

Bolinger was found guilty of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following sexual grooming.

In online chats with other users, Bolinger also claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old child.

On his profile he listed his interests as "cannibalism, mainly the hunting and preparation of young but sometimes not so young women".

At his trial at Canterbury Crown Court, chat logs were read out 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.

He told the court that 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 that he thought it was likely that she was actually a man in his 30s "surrounded by pizza boxes" who would be dead by his 40s.

Bolinger also insisted that he would ever really behead anyone.

However prosecutors said it was clear that Bolinger did believe "Eva" was a 14-year-old girl, and he had bragged to others in chat logs about the proposed meeting.

Bolinger's graphic chat logs were discovered by the FBI in New York, Prosecutor Martin Yale told the court.

Information was passed to Kent Police and he was arrested at the hospital where he worked.

Police then found indecent pseudo-images of children aged four to 16 which had been digitally manipulated at his home.

The pictures had been given names including "Dinner" and "The BBQ", which Mr Yale said that pointed to Bolinger's sexual interest in cannibalism relating to children.

At his trial, Bolinger was asked by defence counsel Paul Jarvis whether he had ever attempted to kill anyone, eaten human flesh or sexually assaulted a child. Express