Former health official in B.C., Alberta sentenced to 5 1/2 years for child sex assault

By The Canadian Press and Alejandro Melgar

A judge has sentenced a former medical health officer to five and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a young child in northern Alberta.

Dr. Albert de Villiers, 54, was found guilty of sexual assault and sexual interference of a boy in Grand Prairie, Alta., between 2018 and 2020.

The child, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, was seven when the abuse began.

The boy testified at trial that de Villiers showed him pornography and touched him several times at the doctor’s home.

The Alberta RCMP launched an investigation into de Villiers on May 28, 2021. He was arrested in Kelowna in June 2021 and subsequently charged.


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De Villiers was the medical officer of health in Alberta’s north zone for 16 years.

He became the chief medical officer of health for B.C.’s Interior Health Authority in August 2020.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard says the doctor’s career has been ruined, and he cannot restore his credibility.

-With files from Hana Mae Nassar

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