A career criminal who helped put a Halifax Hells Angel and three other men away for a Dartmouth murder says he has been pulled from Canada’s witness protection program.

"As of last Friday, they’ve officially given me the boot," Paul Joseph Derry said in a telephone interview.

"Happy to see me gone, I’m sure."

On May 28, Assistant Commissioner Stephen White wrote that "all protection provided to you pursuant to the protection agreements . . . between you and the RCMP and pursuant to the Witness Protection Program Act is hereby terminated effective immediately."

Derry, who now goes by another name, had been fighting to stay in witness protection since October, when RCMP first sent him a letter saying it was going to end its contract.

News outlets reported at the time that Derry had 13 alleged breaches to the terms of his witness protection agreement. The Chronicle Herald hasn’t seen the list of breaches, but Derry said those incidents included interviews with reporters and radio shows, especially following a book he published in April 2009 about the killing — Treacherous: How the RCMP Allowed a Hells Angel to Kill.

"I see their reasons for kicking me out," Derry said.

"I mean, they’re quite valid. I’ve been very public . . . and I guess this is just part of what we knew would come. They didn’t want me to write a book. I choose to write the book. I don’t think they’re happy about any of the newspaper stuff or the radio, TV, any of that kind of stuff."

A longtime RCMP informant, Derry entered the witness protection program after the shooting death of Sean Eamonn Simmons.

The victim, a 31-year-old former Halifax dockyard worker and married father of two, died on Oct. 3, 2000. He had been shot in the head in the lobby of an apartment building at 12 Trinity Ave.

It was a Hells Angels hit, and Derry drove the getaway car. He and Tina Potts (who later became his wife) also hid and destroyed evidence, including the gun used in the killing.

Derry later testified in court that he had told RCMP about the murder plot about three weeks before it happened but said police didn’t act on his information.

They had used his information on other cases before, but Derry said his information was ignored because he was labelled "treacherous" in his RCMP file in Nova Scotia.

After the murder, he signed an immunity agreement with Halifax Regional Police, the force investigating the murder, and wore a wire to record meetings with the accused individuals.

Derry’s evidence helped send Hells Angel Neil Smith, associate Wayne James, Dean Kelsie and Steven Gareau to prison for murder and conspiracy.

Sgt. Pat Flood, a RCMP spokeswoman at national headquarters in Ottawa, wouldn’t answer any questions about Derry’s claims.

"We’re not in a position to confirm or deny who is still part of or who was part of the witness protection program, so I don’t have a response to your questions," she said in an interview Wednesday.

The money Derry once made dealing drugs and working as an informant is gone. But he said his life has taken a far better path since he and his wife became Christians.

"I’m sure you should wear your workboots and hard hats around us because we’re under construction," the 44-year-old said. "We haven’t changed completely perfectly, but we certainly don’t live anything like we used to."

He does street ministry and is "well-ingrained in my church and my community." He and his family live in an undisclosed location outside of Nova Scotia.

His wife and children are happy, but the threat of danger is always on Derry’s mind.

"Almost every day of my life, I think about what it’s going to be like to be killed, how it’s going to happen," he said.

Derry said he didn’t want to jeopardize his family’s safety and wasn’t interested in the publicity. Instead, he said he wrote the book and did the media interviews because "there was no reason for Sean to die."

Derry said the decision to remove him from witness protection is because "I created a lot of trouble for them."

"I’ve been in a constant fight with them. This is a very simple fight. I just wanted them to admit what they did was wrong with Sean nine years ago. If they had done that, I would’ve just quietly went away. But they haven’t, and they just keep refusing to."

News of his expulsion from witness protection is complicated by the fact that Derry’s wife, who signed a separate witness protection agreement, and their children are all in the program.

Derry doesn’t know if that means Potts and the children will lose their protection or if they will be forced apart because he’s no longer in the program and because people in protection aren’t supposed to associate with people from their pasts.

"We’re still waiting to hear how that works," said Derry.

He is in contact with his lawyer but hasn’t decided whether to appeal the RCMP’s decision in court.

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