Assault trial scheduled for Interior Health’s former top doctor in Alberta

Interior Health’s former chief medical health officer will stand trial on charges of sexual assault and sexual interference in Alberta next January.

Dr. Albert Stefanus de Villiers, who was until June 2021 the health authority’s top doctor, had his trial date set in a Grande Prairie, Alta., courtroom on Monday for Jan. 10 to Jan. 12, 2023.

The trial will be in front of a judge alone.

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The charges of sexual assault and sexual interference, according to court documents, are for events that are alleged to have taken place between June 15, 2018, and July 31, 2020, near Grande Prairie.

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De Villiers was arrested on June 8, 2021 in Kelowna, with assistance from Kelowna RCMP. He was in custody overnight and released the next day on a consent order in the amount of $1,500 with no cash deposit or surety, with conditions.

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De Villiers took over as chief medical health officer of Interior Health in August 2020.

Previously he worked out of Grande Prairie as the lead medical health officer with Alberta’s north zone. He originally came to Canada from South Africa.