Child sex assault trial for Interior Health’s former top doctor gets underway in Alberta

The sex assault trial for Interior Health’s former chief medical health officer got underway in Grande Prairie, Alta., on Tuesday.

Dr. Albert Stefanus de Villiers, who was the B.C. health authority’s top doctor until June 2021, is on trial for charges of sexual assault and sexual interference in the northern Alberta city. He pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of the three day trial.

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

The court heard that the alleged victim of sexual touching was a child, now 11, whose family was so close with de Villiers, that he was referred to as “uncle.”

The boy said he and his sibling had spent the night at de Villiers’ home together a couple of times and he had stayed there alone four or five times. In video testimony recorded in 2021, when the allegations were made to police, the boy said that on more than one occasion, on his solo sleepover,  he was shown nudity on a tablet. He said he’d been asked to touch de Villiers sexually and he also was touched sexually.

De Villiers moved away from the town where the boy’s family lived but they maintained weekly contact through video calls. During one of these calls, the boy testified that de Villiers once asked him if his penis had gotten bigger.

The boy’s father testified that when he found out about what had been happening in May 2021, he immediately reported what he heard to the RCMP and cut off contact with de Villiers, who had since moved from the town they both lived in, to the Okanagan, where he worked for Interior Health.

Evidence submitted by the Crown on the first day of the trial included testimony from the boy, his father and a police officer who took a statement when the complaint was initially made.

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One more witness for the Crown is expected to testify Wednesday.

Due to the age of the people involved in the trial, there’s a publication ban covering their identities and anything that may offer insight into them.

De Villiers was arrested on June 8, 2021, with assistance from Kelowna RCMP.

He was in custody overnight and released on a release order by consent in the amount of $1,500 with no cash deposit or surety, with conditions.

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

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