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Britain's most notorious cannibal fantasist - who plotted to chop off a teenager's head and eat her - has been jailed for NINE years.
Nurse Dale Bolinger, 58, indulged in perverted online chats with someone he believed was a 14-year-old schoolgirl in an attempt to lure her to his Canterbury home.
During his trial at Canterbury Crown Court , the married Bolinger – who kept his sick desires a secret from his wife – discussed buying an axe and beheading his victim, before eating her.
Today, Judge Adele Williams told him: "You demonstrated when giving evidence that you are an arrogant and manipulative man.
"You have shown no remorse and indeed cannot understand why anyone should find your behaviour in any way abnormal or perverted, let alone criminal.
"You lack any insight into your behaviour and fail to understand that right-minded people will find your behaviour abhorrent, shocking, repulsive and dangerous, dangerous because, by talking about these activities, there is always the risk that your fantasies will tip over into actions.
"There was also the real danger that you would inflame or incite the people with whom you were discussing these activities to move from fantasy to action themselves."
Bolinger, an American citizen, could face deportation at the end of his sentence.
During the hearing at Canterbury Crown Court, a psychiatrist ruled Bolinger was NOT suffering from mental illness and would probably continue to have warped fantasies regardless of his punishment.
Judge Williams described the revelation as "worrying and disturbing" and imposed an order banning him from accessing the internet in future without supervision.
She said his access of the sick website Dark Fetish Network was "not only feeding his own fantasy but corrupting others who may act out their own".
During his earlier trial at Canterbury Crown Court, married Bolinger – dubbed Canterbury's Hannibal Lecter – discussed buying an axe, chopping his victim’s head off and then eating her.
He claimed to have murdered a five-year-old child and a 39-year-old Caribbean former colleague.
He also attempted to poison former colleague Urlene King with dry cleaning fluid.
Today, Judge Williams heard Ms King had told Bolinger's wife about the attack, but regretted not reporting it to police in light of what later happened.
Giving evidence at his trial in July, Bolinger, who worked as a nurse at the QEQM Hospital in Thanet, claimed he believed the teenage girl from Germany he was talking to was in reality a man who was also indulging in internet fantasy.
But then the jury which convicted him heard he had bought an axe the day before he was due to meet ‘Eva’ at Ashford railway station – and then went to meet the train.
And it was told he had stored vile images of children next to an oven on his computer and had smothered a former work colleague with dry cleaning fluid in what police believe was a botched attempt to sexually assault her.
This morning, Judge Adele Williams has sentenced Bolinger after considering a psychiatric and probation report.
He was arrested last year after an FBI investigation in America into internet chats about rape, murder and cannibalism.
Bolinger’s email address – meatmarketman@rocketmail.com – was one of those probed by police and found on a website called Dark Fetish Network.
It was there he began chatlogs with a number of people interested in the sinister world of rape, slavery and cannibalism.
The FBI obtained information from Yahoo which led police to the email account, which was being accessed via an IP address in Kent.
Prosecutor Martin Yale had explained: “DFN is a website for those who fantasise about various things, including cannibalism. One of the users that Bolinger befriended on DFN was someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.
“And having discussed with her his fantasies in relation to her on more than one occasion, made arrangements to meet her with the intention of committing a sexual offence on her.”
‘Eva’ – her identity has never been revealed – said she wanted to meet someone prepared to sever her head with a meat cleaver.
Bolinger travelled to Ashford International station in September 2012 to meet her, with a new axe in the boot of his car.
No-one showed up and he returned home to attempt to make contact a second time with the mystery girl.
The FBI later sent Kent Police a disc of the chatlogs involving Bolinger, which contained conversations “making graphic reference to sexual abuse, murder and cannibalism of women and children of a wide range of ages, including a baby”.
Before his trial on a grooming charge, he had pleaded guilty to an offence of administering a poison or noxious substance "with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy" to a woman in July 2, 2010.
That had involved him putting a cloth soaked in dry cleaning fluid over a female friend’s mouth.
Giving evidence in a blue striped shirt and tie at his trial, Bolinger was asked by his barrister Paul Jarvis: “Have you killed anyone? Have you eaten anyone? Have you raped anyone? Have you sexually assaulted anyone?”
Each time Bolinger replied: “No.”
He was then asked if he had ever intended to kill or eat anyone and he said: “No, not in reality. Just in fantasy.”
Speaking after the sentencing, Kent Police's head of public protection Detective Superintendent Tim Smith, said: "There is no doubt in my mind Bolinger represents a very real and great danger to the public and I welcome the news he will spend time behind bars, preventing him from causing harm.
"On the fetish chatrooms, Bolinger used a number of names to hide his identity, but my team of officers with specialist knowledge and equipment worked closely with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in America to reveal his true identity.
"From then on, officers left no stone unturned in searching for evidence both at Bolinger's house and elsewhere to ensure we presented the very best case possible regarding his actions online and his very clear intentions with a young and potentially very vulnerable girl.
"This was clearly a lengthy, painstaking and complicated investigation with a significant amount of evidence recovered in the USA.
"I hope the conviction and sentencing should serve to highlight to those attempting to hide their identity online with the intention of carrying out criminal actions - there is no hiding place.
"We will use all our powers and techniques, as well as those of other law enforcement agencies, to ensure those like Bolinger are put behind bars and justice is done."
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