Interior Health's former chief medical health officer convicted of sexually assaulting child in Alberta

Former top doc convicted

This story contains graphic details about the sexual abuse of a child. Reader discretion is advised.

UPDATE: 1:28 p.m.

Interior Health has issued a short statement in response to the guilty verdict against Albert de Villiers.

“Given the leadership and public-facing role of the chief medical health officer, and the critical importance for the incumbent to comply with all respects of professional standards, it is Interior Health’s position that a person convicted of criminal charges of this nature is unable to fulfill the duties of the position.

“Due to privacy laws, and the fact that the matter involving Dr. de Villiers continues to be before the courts, we are not able to provide further comment,” reads the statement.

Dr. de Villiers remained employed by Interior Health throughout the court proceedings and was paid $361,000 last fiscal year.

"As of today, Dr. de Villiers is no longer an employee of Interior Health," said an additional statement from IH.

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ORGINAL 9:45 a.m.

Interior Health's former chief medical health officer has been found guilty of sexually touching a child.

Tuesday morning, Court of King’s Bench of Alberta Justice Shaina Leonard convicted Dr. Albert de Villiers of sexually assaulting a child and sexual interference in relation to multiple incidents that occurred in Grande Prairie, Alta. between 2018 and 2020.

The conviction comes after a three-day trial that took place last month.

Based out of Kelowna, de Villiers worked as Interior Health's chief medical health officer from the summer of 2020 to June 2021, when the charges were laid against him. He was the health authority's go-to person for communicating COVID-19 information to the public while employed by IH.

Prior to moving to the Okanagan, de Villiers worked as a medical health officer for Alberta Health Services for 16 years. The allegations he's been convicted of occurred while he was employed by Alberta Health Services.

During the trial, which ran from Jan. 10 to 12 in Grande Prairie, the court heard testimony from the victim, who's now 11 years old, the child's parents and de Villiers himself.

Any information that could identify the victim is protected under a publication ban.

The child told his mother in May 2021 that de Villiers had previously shown him pornographic videos during several sleepovers, and touched his penis. He said de Villiers had put his mouth on the child's penis. He was between seven and nine years old when the assaults occurred. The child told police the assaults occurred "again, again and again."

De Villiers was arrested the following month.

When police arrested de Villiers, an officer asked de Villiers if he had ever licked the child's penis. De Villier's asked the officer to "define lick."

During her closing statements, Crown prosecutor Amber Pickrell focused heavily on a voicemail de Villiers left for the child's father in June 2021, after the child's family had stopped returning his calls and blocked him on social media.

The transcript of the voicemail was read out in court:

“I don't know what to tell you, all I can say is that I will not have contact with you again and I don't know what to say further. I am extremely sorry that what happened did happen and [I] know [I] should have come to you earlier to tell you what actually happened. Anyway, just wanted to say that it has never happened before, and I cannot get over it. So it will never happen with anyone else again in any case. So I do not know what you will do with it. If there is anything that you guys ... need, I know that you probably don't want anything to do with us now, obviously, but if there is anything else that I can do, I don't know, like if I can help or write a letter or give an explanation explaining. It's just things lead to another, and I did wrong things and I take responsibility for what I have done wrong, in any case. And I do not know what to say, I do not know what to say further.”

De Villiers denied the allegations against him, and claimed he had left the voicemail to apologize for overstepping his role as a friend, by playing a quasi-parental role in the child's life. De Villiers testified that June 2021 was a very stressful time in his life as he worked to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C.'s Interior. He said he had met with the RCMP a month before his arrest over death threats he'd received in connection to his work with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

He was overwhelmed and confused when he was first arrested, he testified, which is why he had asked the officer for clarification about the allegation of licking the child's penis.

He admitted to sharing a tent with the child and a sibling during a campout, and he said he once slept alone with the child in a basement bedroom.

The child testified he told his mother in May 2021 about the pornography de Villiers had showed him and the sexual touching because he was worried he would get in trouble. He said de Villiers had explicitly told him not to tell his parents, because de Villiers could go to jail if he did.

The child told police that de Villiers had tried to "brainwash" him, but he later clarified in court that he had meant to say he had manipulated him.

Justice Leonard rejected de Villiers' explanations, and ruled the child's testimony was both reliable and credible.

"I do not believe the accused," Justice Leonard said. "I find that the text of the voicemail is clear, that the accused is apologizing for something specific that had occurred, and that the accused knew what he was apologizing for.

"I accept that the accused was either attempting to mislead the police ... or he had not yet settled on a story that would explain the voicemail."

Additionally, she said there was nothing in the RCMP officer's question about whether or not de Villiers licked the child's penis that "could have caused confusion."

Justice Leonard determined de Villiers sexually assaulted the child somewhere between five and eight times, and convicted him of sexual interference and sexual assault. But due to the "Kienapple principle," which states a person cannot be convicted of two offences as a result of the same act, the sexual assault charge was stayed.

While de Villiers was convicted Tuesday morning, his sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

He's facing separate child sex charges, stemming from allegations between January 2017 and December 2019 in Alberta. He's scheduled to face trial on those charges in August.