Interior Health's Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Albert de Villiers
Image Credit: Submitted/Interior Health
June 13, 2023 - 2:15 PM
Interior Health's former top doctor will spend five-and-a-half years in prison for molesting a young boy who once called him "uncle."
Dr. Albert de Villiers, 54, was living in Grande Prairie, Alberta, at the time where he worked as the chief medical health officer of Alberta Health's North Zone. After moving to Kelowna to work for Interior Health, de Villiers was charged with two counts of sexual assault and sexual interference in June 2021.
He was found guilty of both counts in February. Today, June 13, de Villiers was sentenced and taken into custody.
de Villiers and his wife were close with the other family, court heard. The de Villiers would host their children over for sleepovers, becoming like family.
The young victim told his parents that's when de Villiers sexually assaulted and showed him pornography over multiple incidents between June 15, 2018 and July 31, 2020, according to court documents. The boy was between the ages of seven and nine at the time.
The boy's parents cut off contact with de Villiers when he told them what happened, but didn't explain anything to de Villiers. Fearing they knew what he did, de Villiers tried to contact them. He left the family a voicemail apologizing for what he had done, but wasn't specific, the court heard.
He told police the next day that he claimed he was apologizing because he "overstepped" and became a father-figure to the victim, not because he sexually assaulted the young victim.
Court of King's Bench Justice Shaina Leonard didn't believe his claims and said de Villiers' evidence was "inconsistent" and "frail" during the January trial.
The Crown, however, said the voicemail was an "expression of genuine remorse," which Leonard agreed with during today's sentencing hearing.
The Justice also said de Villiers didn't just sexually assault the victim, he "groomed" him for those assaults.
"I find the offender did engage in grooming behaviour with the victim," Leonard said. de Villiers "isolated" the victim from his family, not only showing him pornography, but he also had multiple private phone calls and had him over for sleep overs without the parents present.
The Crown was seeking eight years in prison, while de Villiers' defence was seeking four years.
While in prison, de Villiers will be preparing for another trial in August related to more charges for sexual crimes against children.
Grande Prairie RCMP began investigating more reports in January 2021 and subsequently charged him on Aug. 23. He's charged with invitation to sexual touching, voyeurism and making sexually explicit material available to a child, which is said to have happened between January 2017 and December 2019.
de Villiers lived in Alberta for 15 years before moving to Kelowna in 2020.
He doesn't live there anymore, however, which was a decision he and his wife made after facing media attention and "stigmatization" related to the charges, according to Leonard.
She said the "unwanted notoriety" was inevitable given his role with the health authorities. de Villiers' defence said he may never practice medicine again because of the charges.
"His career has been left in ruin," Leonard said. "There is no circumstance in which he will be able to reclaim what he has lost."
Leonard also said she had difficulty determining de Villiers' risk to reoffend, adding the Crown did remind the court he's facing another trial for separate charges in August.
"While the character references established that the offender is of previous good character and that parents trust him with their children, there's no explanation for why this changed with respect to the victim," she said, adding that de Villiers hasn't sought any treatment or counselling.
Along with his prison sentence of more than five years, de Villiers will be registered as a sex offender for 20 years. He is also facing a life-long order not to communicate with or go near the victim.
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