The high-profile sex assault trial of Interior Health’s former top doctor wrapped up in a Grande Prairie, Alta., courtroom on Thursday morning following two days of witness testimony.
Justice Shaina Leonard is expected to deliver a verdict in the sexual assault and sexual interference trial of Dr. Albert de Villiers on Feb. 7.
The charges against de Villiers, 54, are for incidents alleged to have occurred between June 15, 2018, and July 31, 2020, near Grande Prairie in northwestern Alberta.
The trial began Tuesday with the testimony of the 11-year-old boy, who levied the allegations against de Villiers.
He testified that he had been shown pornography and was sexually assaulted by the man he once called “uncle.”
de Villiers, who said he spent time with the boy hiking, looking at photography and playing video games, denied the claims, and testified that he simply overstepped his bounds, and started to think of himself as a parenting figure.
That overstep, he told the court, was why he left a voicemail on the boy’s father’s phone, apologizing for, among other things, going too far.
Meanwhile, de Villiers — who remains out on bail — also faces separate child sex charges for alleged incidents between 2017 and 2020, also in Alberta.
de Villiers was named chief medical health officer for Interior Health in August 2020.
Prior to moving to the Okanagan, de Villiers was the lead medical officer in Alberta Health Services’ North Zone and was based out of Grande Prairie.
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