Nurse Dale Bolinger 'found children interesting as food' Published duration 16 July 2014

image copyright PA image caption Dale Bolinger had fantasies as a boy about kindergarten staff eating girls, Canterbury Crown Court heard

A nurse who allegedly planned to meet a girl of 14 so he could eat her told police he found children interesting as a food source, a court has heard.

Dale Bolinger, 57, had a computer disc containing an image of a girl on a serving plate with an apple in her mouth, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

He said he thought about cannibalism from the age of six but his interest was all "in fantasy", the court heard.

Mr Bolinger denies attempting to meet a child under 16 after sexual grooming.

Jurors have heard he used an online network to discuss beheading and eating women and girls for sexual pleasure.

The court heard he had online chats with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old Mexican girl called "Eva" who lived in Germany, about killing and eating her.

But he told police he was so concerned after the chats that he believed her to be at risk, and that was why he travelled to Ashford International station to meet her, the trial was told.

'Bought an axe'

When questioned about images found on a disc at his home, Mr Bolinger told police: "I do not find children sexually attractive but I do find them interesting as a food source."

But he also told officers: "At no time have I ever killed, kidnapped, taken or eaten a person."

Jurors were told when he arranged to meet "Eva" during chats on the Dark Fetish Network (DFN) website, they had discussed him killing her with an axe and eating her.

The court heard Mr Bolinger bought an axe from Homebase but he told police he had bought it to remove two tree stumps from the side of his house.

Defending Mr Bolinger, Paul Jarvis said: "There is not a single piece of evidence from the family home to say that anyone met their death there or has been consumed at the property."

'Is this fantasy?'

He asked his client whether he had ever killed anybody, eaten human flesh or sexually assaulted a child.

Mr Bolinger replied: "No, not in reality, just in fantasy."

He told the court he had visited the DFN website out of curiosity and the people he spoke to seemed to be "willing to accept anything".

Mr Bolinger said: "Initially, I was looking to find people with like minds and to see where they came from, but it soon spiralled down into trying to shock people enough that they would ask 'is this fantasy?'"

Asked if he would ever decapitate anyone, Mr Bolinger replied: "No, not only would you be killing somebody but the mess would be quiet incredible."

'Domineering mother'

And he told the court: "When I first started school I had a fantasy about children being stolen and cooked and I would save them.

"That changed around puberty."

Earlier, prosecutor Martin Yale read to the court excerpts from a police interview with Mr Bolinger when he was arrested in February last year.

Mr Bolinger said at the age of six he had fantasies about kindergarten staff taking girls to the kitchen to eat them.

He told police: "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."

Mr Bolinger, formerly of Canterbury, blamed his "very domineering" mother for his behaviour, which he described as "weird" and "very strange", the jury was told.

Mr Bolinger said in the police interview: "I think it was more to do with disliking my mother more than hating women."

The court heard he told police he had been brought up in a military household because his father was in the US Air Force and he had been suppressed as a child.

Jurors were told Mr Bolinger said his mother made a drunken pass at him when he was 15, which left him "shocked".

'Seriously deranged'

The court heard Mr Bolinger had been married for 34 years and had four children, though one had died before the age of one.

He told police he had never discussed his fantasies with his wife Rosemary and said he felt ashamed.

Mr Yale said the accused told police: "It was less to do with sexual gratification and more to do with anger.

"The people that do it (cannibalism) are seriously deranged, and I may be many things but I am not deranged."

In February, Mr Bolinger pleaded guilty to administering a poison or noxious substance after he put a cloth soaked with dry-cleaning fluid over the mouth of his friend Urlene King in July 2010.

'No emotion'

He said he loved her and sexual feelings towards her, but Miss King had not really made her feelings towards him clear.

He described how he saw some gauze and the fluid as he was washing his hands.

He told the jury: "I was intending to put it over her face. Why I was intending to put it over her face; I don't really remember it.

"I could not feel any emotion or anything.

"Was I living out one of these fantasies? No. Was it to kill her? No. Was it to rape her? No. Why I was doing it, I am not too sure. I cannot really give an adequate answer."

On Tuesday the trial heard how Mr Bolinger claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old child during chats with other users of the DFN.

He was arrested by Kent Police in February 2013 following contact with FBI officers in the United States and charged seven months later.

The trial was adjourned until Friday.

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