(7) My Investigation (Part 2)

The Masters of The South Hereford Hunt told me that the Terrierman, Nathan Parry, had found a GPS tracker on his vehicle and that police were going to his house at 3pm on Thursday 2nd June to collect it.

I attended his address near Abergavenny at this time. The information I had been given was correct and Parry was at his address with two police officers. What surprised me was that they were Special Branch Detective Constables from the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit!

It was a tracker, not a bomb!!………………………. But as I said previously any reports in connection with Hunt Monitors receive very special attention. Why is that?

Anyway, I introduced myself to the officers who looked somewhat surprised to see me. One of the detectives was holding a Faraday bag containing the GPS tracker. Faraday bags are used to block remote wiping or alteration of wireless devices. I then arrested Parry one suspicion of animal cruelty. I explained the reason for the arrest and said that I was looking for a tracking device that I believed Parry had found on his vehicle. The Detective then handed me the Faraday bag containing the GPS tracker. The detectives said that they were going to see if they could find out who put the tracker on Parry’s vehicle. I told them that I knew who put it on there and it was now part of my evidence.

I took Parry to Hereford Police Station where I interviewed him.

So, Just to recap, Mr Parry, The Terrierman said he had dug out or captured about 20 foxes in a 6 month period. (Not including the 4 fox cubs) He shot 2 and so released/relocated about 18 of them………but couldn’t remember the names of any farms or estates where he had released them! He had only ever taken 4 fox cubs to the South Hereford Hunt Kennels………….and the HIT were incredibly lucky to capture all 4 of these on film. What are the chances? He loved the sport of watching his dogs work, digging out the foxes, but he didn’t have the heart to kill them if he didn’t need to so would kindly take them to land where farmers quite like to see them. (Those farmers wouldn’t happen to hunt, would they)?

So Mr Parry, the Terrierman for The South Hereford Hunt has dispelled this myth that foxes are vermin and need controlling. Thank you Nathan.

Now, there’s something I noticed that didn’t quite make sense. Parry said that he found the GPS tracker on his vehicle on 16th May, which marries up with what HIT said. Parry said he took it off and spoke to a police officer that he knew, and it went from there. This police officer was a personal friend of Parry and his partner, Julie Elmore. The police officer evidenced that in early may 2016 he was contacted by Julie who wanted some advice. She told him that she had found a tracker attached to one of her vehicles and had removed it. She said that she believed that the tracker may have been placed on the vehicle by anti hunt activists as both her and her partner were involved in the Herefordshire Hunt.

The officer documented that he took advice from his sergeant who told him to contact Special Branch. The officer also documented that Elmore had indicated to him that she thought the tracker had been on the vehicle a while due to the large amount of disruption during the hunting season and that other staff at the kennel were under investigation regarding offences concerning foxes.

The problem with this officer’s evidence is that he phoned Gwent Police to report the incident while off duty……..on 29th May. (The day after I had arrested and interviewed Oliver and Rose)!!

So, what happened between the 16th and 29th May is unclear. What is clear is that Parry and Elmore were obviously contacted on 29th May giving them the heads up about police involvement at the kennels. (It would give them a chance to get their stories straight, knowing that they would also be questioned). They in turn then spoke to this police officer who decided it was so urgent, he couldn’t wait until he returned to duty to report it!!

If the officer knew about the tracker when it was discovered on 16th May, why didn’t he do anything about it then? This seemed very strange.