Paul Joseph Derry, now lives in an undisclosed location somewhere in North America under a new identity after he agreed to testify about a Hells Angels contract killing in 2000. His testimony secured four murder convictions against three Hells Angels associates and one full-patch member, all now serving terms in prison.
An RCMP document obtained by the Citizen shows that the commissioner of the force now wants to kick their once-coveted agent out of the witness protection program because he “made no attempt to disguise or alter” his voice. “By failing to disguise your voice ... you irrevocably permitted a (potential) voice comparison analysis link of your former identity to your new identity.”The RCMP commissioner’s decision to abandon the agent comes at a time when the national police force continues to afford protection and new identities for others in the federal witness program who have gone on to commit crimes — including murder — under new, government-expensed, aliases.The RCMP’s witness protection program termination notice is dated Oct. 22, and says the agent has until Nov. 11 to appeal. The agent has met with the Citizen twice and agreed to an interview Saturday.

“The Hells Angels are the most notorious and dangerous outlaw motorcycle club in the world. Putting a full-patch member and three of his associates in prison for the rest of their lives is unforgiveable to the Hells (Angels),” he said in the interview.

“I think getting kicked out of the program puts me one step closer to getting a bullet in the back of the head.” He believes his tumultuous relationship with the Mounties may be related to the fact that he warned the force about a murder plot two weeks before it happened. The RCMP didn’t take his claims seriously, and the contract killing of Sean Simmons, a steamship checker on the Halifax waterfront, went ahead. To be fair to his RCMP handlers — including Mike Cabana, a lead investigator in the Maher Arar affair — they weren’t given specifics on the Hells Angels contract killing. Still, as their informant learned more details about the plot, the RCMP officers never returned his calls in the hours leading up to the killing.It is clear, however, that Cabana, promoted to assistant RCMP commissioner after the Arar probe, was worried about the public’s take on what went wrong with the 2000 Hells Angels contract killing. “Should this matter proceed to court, this information will likely be disclosed, thereby tarnishing the Force’s reputation, not to mention any potential civil liability that might flow from this situation,” Cabana wrote in an internal RCMP memo obtained by the Citizen. The agent told the Citizen that others should think twice before they agree to testify against gangsters in exchange for a life in the witness protection program.“The program has great potential and is needed; however, the public would be much better served if the RCMP had both accountability and were forced to hear constructive input from those they are protecting. “The way it is now, I do not believe there is enough support upon entrance to be worth risking one’s life.”
When he was working as an RCMP agent, he recalled:“I told them that there was a hit going down ...“At that point in time, I wasn’t sure of the name. I wasn’t sure who it was; I just knew that there was a hit going down … They (the RCMP) said they’d get back to me.
“They were still deciding whether they’d work with me. So … the Friday before the murder, I called back … This time I … knew who was gonna be killed. “I tried to get a hold of them and they said they’d call me back on Monday. Sean (Simmons) was killed on Tuesday … they still hadn't got back to me,” Derry told police.“But they never got back to me and it was too late. I thought they were going to stop the murder but they didn’t.”