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Region’s former top doc guilty of child sex crimes
KAMLOOPS THISWEEK
Dr. Albert de Villiers, the former chief medical health officer for Interior Health and a former top doctor in Alberta, has been convicted of sex crimes involving a child.
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Court of King’s Bench Justice Shania
Leonard announced De Villiers’ verdict on Tuesday, Feb. 7, in Grande Prairie, Alta., following a trial that ran from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12.
Leonard found De Villiers guilty of one count of sexual assault and guilty of one count of sexual interference related to his interactions with the child, whose identity is protected under a publication ban.
Due to the age of the victim, the trial was held under several publication bans.
The offence occurred between 2018 and 2020, while De Villiers was the lead medical health officer for Alberta’s Northern Zone. De Villiers was serving as Interior Health’s chief medical health officer when he was arrested in Kelowna in June 2021.
De Villiers still faces three other charges — voyeurism, making explicit material available to a child and invitation to sexual touching — related to unrelated alleged incidents that police say occurred between January 2017 and December 2019. The trial for those charges is scheduled to begin on Aug. 22.
