Interior Health’s former top doctor testified on Wednesday that he did not molest an 11-year-old Alberta boy whose allegations are the centre of his high-profile sex assault trial.
When asked a series of questions by his defence lawyer, Chris Millsap, Dr. Albert de Villiers refuted claims he appeared naked in front of the child, that he touched the child sexually or had the child touch him.
He also said that they never watched pornography together or discussed where babies came from.
Millsap also drew de Villiers’ attention to a 2021 statement he made to police as an investigation into his conduct with the child was launched.
The officer asked de Villiers about a specific allegation against him, and he replied “define lick.”
“I was trying to rack my brain as to why would he say something like this?” de Villiers told the court about the unusual response.
“Is there anything I did that he could have misconstrued as that?”
Before heading into the specifics of accusations levied against him by the Alberta boy who once called him uncle, de Villiers testified at length that he believed he had run afoul of the family by overstepping his boundaries and engaging in a parental role, which he told the court he knows now was wrong.
“I obviously overstepped my boundaries as a family friend,” de Villiers said.
The boy had been over for multiple sleepovers during the years the families knew one another, with the child on at least one occasion asking his parents to allow him to sleep over.
It was a request his mother said he made at the behest of de Villiers.
De Villiers said they enjoyed playing video games together, going for hikes and looking at his photography.
DeVilliers testified that the close relationship with the family carried on for a period after he and his wife had moved from Grande Prairie to Kelowna, but there was a point in May 2021 when he realized that the family wasn’t only avoiding his calls, they’d blocked his number and his social media accounts.
On one occasion, he called the father of the boy he’s charged with assaulting and told the court there was silence for a moment before he was hung up on.
That led him to leave a phone message that has been referenced multiple times in the two-day trial.
When the boy’s mother testified earlier in the day, she told the court his message that day sounded, to her, like a confession.
“To me, it was an admission of guilt that something had happened. And, according to what (my son) told me, that the sexual assault had happened and that it shouldn’t have happened, that he was sorry, and one thing led to one another and he takes responsibility for it and he should have come to us sooner,” she said.
De Villiers offered a different take when he took the stand.
Among parts of the message further discussed was his pledge that he wouldn’t have contact with the family again.
“It was obvious to me, at that point, they didn’t want contact anymore because they blocked everything,” he said, noting that he was going to abide by their wishes.
De Villiers also said he was extremely sorry that “what happened did happen.” There was no reference to what may have happened.
De Villiers said the apology related to “what happened is that over time.”
He, in his mind, had been criticizing their parenting style.
“I thought I can do it better … or differently. That’s what I meant by that,” he said.
De Villiers also said in the message that it had never happened before and will never happen again.
“It,” once again, is not defined in the voicemail, but DeVilliers told the court on Wednesday that he was referencing stepping over a parental boundary.
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Evidence in the court case has been submitted.
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 on June 9 was 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 the 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.
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.
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