Dale Bolinger 'did not intend to kill and eat girl' Published duration 18 July 2014

image copyright PA image caption Dale Bolinger told police he believed the girl he was chatting to online was probably a man in his 30s

A nurse has denied planning to behead a teenager with an axe and eat her, telling a court his graphic online chats were an attempt to shock people.

Canterbury Crown Court heard Dale Bolinger, 58, chatted with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl on a fetish website.

He told jurors: "I wasn't going to take off anyone's head. It would have been messy, it would have been horrible."

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

Jurors have retired to consider their verdict.

They heard he had talked online about beheading and eating a 14-year-old Mexican girl called "Eva", who was living in Germany.

The day before they had planned to meet, he bought an axe from a DIY store in Broadstairs, Kent, the court was told.

That night Mr Bolinger, who worked at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, told her: "Got the axe, you ready to get that train?"

But jurors heard that "Eva", whose true identity has never been uncovered, did not show up at Ashford International Station.

Mr Bolinger was arrested after graphic chat logs were uncovered.

Mr Bolinger told the court: "It was really about wanting to shock people...and seeing how far people wanted to go.

"In fact, I was running out of ideas."

In cross-examination, Mr Bolinger said he had bought the axe to chop tree stumps at the side of his house.

image copyright Google image caption Mr Bolinger was due to meet Eva at Ashford International station, but she never arrived, the court heard

Asked why he kept the axe in his bedroom, the father-of -three said it was due to "laziness".

He repeatedly denied that he believed "Eva" was a 14-year-old girl, saying his intention in striking up contact with her was to "feed into her fantasy".

The court heard he told police he believed he was speaking to a man in his 30s "surrounded by pizza boxes".

He told jurors: "I was very stupid and I cannot deny that I have been very stupid and made very serious mistakes, but for those mistakes I have pleaded guilty.

"I didn't believe that it was a 14-year-old or a girl or a child at all.

"I thought it was an adult male."

Prosecutor Martin Yale said internet chats involving Mr Bolinger on the DFN site about beheading and eating women and girls were discovered by the FBI in New York.

In chats with other users Mr Bolinger, who used a picture of supermodel Naomi Campbell on his profile, claimed to have eaten a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old child, Mr Yale told jurors.

His profile, under the name Chris C, listed his interests as "cannibalism, mainly the hunting and preparation of young but sometimes not so young women", it is claimed.

Mr Bolinger said that had "Eva" turned up at Ashford International Station, he would have taken her home and contacted social services.

Mr Yale suggested that he wanted there to be a meeting between them, but Bolinger replied: "No I didn't, because if there was I would have been in real trouble.

"What I was hoping for was that she wouldn't turn up, and then I would go back and shout at her, and let her believe I was still interested."

Mr Bolinger, formerly of Canterbury, denies one charge of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 following sexual grooming in relation to "Eva".

He has pleaded guilty to administering a poison or noxious substance after he put a cloth soaked in dry cleaning fluid over his friend Urlene King's mouth in July 2010.

The trial continues.