A sex offender convicted in the United Kingdom after attempting to kill and eat a teenager has moved to Nebraska after completing his sentence, angering residents.
Dale Bolinger, 62, who made headlines in British media in 2014 after a judge convicted him of attempting to meet an underage girl for sexual grooming and child pornography, was taken into custody at the Washington County Jail Monday.
Although the county sheriff’s office could not “legally” say why he was detained, authorities say he has not been charged with a crime, the Omaha World-Herald reports.
“The sheriff and I have been closely involved with the Bolinger situation,” Washington County Attorney Scott Vander Schaaf said in a statement. “We want to inform the citizens of Washington County that law enforcement and the county attorney’s office know the location of Mr. Bolinger and you can rest assured that he not a threat to the community at this time.”
Multiple reports from British news outlets in 2014 said that Bolinger attempted to meet a 14-year-old girl and attempted to rape, eat, and behead her. Other reports he spent hours on websites feeding his cannibalistic fetish and bought an ax the day before he tried to meet the girl.
The press nicknamed the former National Health Service nurse “Canterbury Cannibal” because of his fetish. Bolinger was sentenced to nine years in a British prison in Canterbury, England, in 2014, but was released ahead of schedule earlier this month.
He returned to the U.S., moved into a home in Blair, Nebraska — a town northwest of Omaha, and was registered as a sex offender in the state.
News of Bolinger’s arrival enraged many of the small town residents.
“This neighborhood is filled with children,” said Sylvia Kasper, a babysitter in the area. “There are babies right up the street. He could have walked right up to the bus stop.”
“I don’t know the protocol with this sort of thing — because who would? — but it really creeps me out,” one area resident who declined to give her name told the World-Herald. “I have grandkids who come over.”
The sheriff’s department said it is “actively patrolling the area,” and performed a compliance check with Bolinger.
The Nebraska State Patrol said there is no way to stop a legal resident of the country from living in a state, but a person convicted of a sex crime must register as a sex offender.