The Mysterious Case of the Heathen Inspector

By Claire Loneragan

Way back in 2010 the Home Office officially recognised Pagan police officers, and in the same year Hertfordshire police enhanced their Chaplaincy team to include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Pagans and Humanists. PC Andrew Pardy was then vice-chair of the Pagan Police Association.

Fast forward to 2026 and the Police Pagan Association (I promise I’m not making this up) is just one of several officially sanctioned “diversity networks” allowing Inspector Andrew Pardy of Hertfordshire Constabulary (now calling himself “founding chair” of the PPA) to run this association as part of his day job.

Can any officer be paid to set up a diversity network then. It seems not. The request for a police SEEN (Sex Equality and Equity Network) was turned down by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) despite SEEN having been approved by numerous other organisations including the civil service.

You have to feel sorry, though, for the practicing Heathen (which is how Andrew Pardy self-describes). Between the “radical right” appropriating Heathen and Pagan traditions and iconography, and men like Peter Petrauske and Jack Kempabusing young girls as part of a witches’ coven in 1970s Cornwall, it’s understandable that a senior police officer would want to ameliorate the reputational damage to fellow Heathens and witches across the UK.

To give him his due, Pardy is very open about the links he believes exist between Pagan groups and the far right, including fascists, white supremacists, Pagan militias, the manosphere, neo-Nazis, terrorists and antisemites. He has outlined a worrying and persistent connection between what look to be dangerous groups and the belief system he is promoting.

What should we make of it?

The NPCC, the Home office, and others appear to take Inspector Pardy’s self-declared expertise seriously. He says he has advised counter terrorism policing, the British Army, and more. But if the threat to public safety and national security is real then a staff diversity network sounds like a very odd way to address it. And if it is not, then the Police Pagan Association needs a lot more scrutiny.

It’s all gone a bit Hot Fuzz.

But Andrew Pardy’s concerns don’t end there.

The Police Pagan Association has this year issued its very own Trans Inclusion Policy. For a document weighing in at more than 3,000 words it is remarkably light on substance, and mostly consists of repeated demands for respect, tolerance, and inclusion of “trans and non-binary” people. The PPA has no sex-based joining criteria, nor does it operate any real-world facilities. So the policy amounts to little more than handwringing about concern and anxiety resulting from the Supreme Court ruling in April 2025, and a requirement to use stated names and pronouns.

The Trans Inclusion Policy strongly promotes respect for the law:

This policy therefore sets out how the Police Pagan Association will continue to support trans inclusion within the current legal framework. It reflects our commitment to equality, dignity, and safety for all, and our determination to act in a way that is consistent with UK law, policing values, and the principles of mutual respect that underpin our communities.

On the other hand, Inspector Pardy’s FaceBook page suggests that the law is an ass and needs to be changed. That it misrepresents the Equality Act 2010 and the Supreme Court ruling:

The court’s decision means there are now multiple legal classes of ‘woman’ and ‘man’, each of which invites a different interpretation of the act: cis women, trans women with a GRC, trans women without a GRC, cis men, trans men with a GRC, trans men without a GRC.

But inclusion, tolerance and coerced speech is not just a matter of principle for Inspector Pardy (he/him) because the intersection between PPA members and people who have opted out of the sex binary is personal.

Meet Evie (Ethan) Pardy (they/them).

We can’t know if Evie (Ethan) brought the concept of gender identity into the Pardy household, but they both seem to be heavily invested in anime and trans iconography, not all of which is entirely respectful of other people’s rights.

And their father, (assuming Andrew is Evie’s father), for all his calls for respect and tolerance from everyone else, saw fit to change his FaceBook profile picture to this.

(Does that “hammer” remind you of something completely different? Maybe it’s just me.)

Inspector Pardy’s superiors should perhaps be keeping a closer eye on their police association chairs because it’s not just members of the public who can become radicalised.

A self-aware Inspector Pardy, with his MA in Terrorism Security & Radical Right Extremism (from which he appears to have created his own accreditation), would know that extremism can take many forms.

He might have asked himself whether a quote from Alok Vaid-Menon in the PPA Trans Inclusion Policy is entirely appropriate.

His line manager might be interested in the answer too.

Meet Alok Vaid-Menon. The man who infamously said:

“There are no princesses. Little girls are also kinky. Your kids aren’t as straight and narrow as you think.”

It’s surprisingly easy to undermine all that effort to sanitise the reputation of witches. Suddenly there’s barely a fag paper’s distance between Pagans, Trans Inclusion Policies and men like Peter Petrauske and Jack Kemp.

If only Inspector Pardy had known someone who could have done a little detective work.

It’s a baffling case. The same year that the Equality Act is passed, the police embrace Heathens and Pagans, and are now funding their support from the public purse. The most senior Heathen in the force has decided to use this public largesse to advocate against women who want to reclaim their sex-based rights.

And Chief Constables continue to maintain the fiction that an extremely clear legal judgment is complex and nuanced.

What on earth is going on?