The former chief medical health officer of Interior Health has been sentenced to 5.5 years in federal prison for sex crimes involving a child.
Dr. Albert de Villiers, 54, appeared in Grande Prairie's Court of King’s Bench of Alberta on Tuesday to be sentenced by Justice Saina Leonard for one count of sexual interference of a child.
“The offender's moral blameworthiness is high,” Leonard said. “The offender exploited the victim's vulnerability by taking advantage of the offender's position of trust as a trusted friend of the family.”
At a sentencing hearing Monday, Crown prosecutors argued for an eight-year prison term while the defense suggested four years.
The defense argued the intense media attention on the case and impact on De Villiers career should be considered in sentencing. The judge said that impact could not be considered a mitigating factor in sentencing, but said it nonetheless plays a role in the case that cannot be completely ignored.
“The loss of the offender’s career as a physician is a significant collateral consequence — his career has been left in ruins,” Leonard said. “While he is likely still employable, no employment he obtains will ever match what is lost in terms of the degree of trust placed in him, skill required or amount of remuneration.”
“While the loss of the ability to practice medicine does not diminish the gravity of the offense or the moral culpability of the offender. It is nonetheless a significant collateral consequence. And it is appropriate that it be considered as a part of the personal circumstances of the offender.”
De Villiers worked as Interior Health's chief medical health officer from the summer of 2020 to June 2021, when the charges were laid against him. Prior to moving to the Okanagan, de Villiers worked as a medical health officer for Alberta Health Services for 16 years. The allegations he's been convicted of occurred between 2018 and 2020 while he was employed by Alberta Health Services.
During the trial, the court heard testimony from the victim, who's now 11 years old. He was between seven and nine years old when the assaults occurred.
The child, whose identity is protected under a publication ban, told his mother in May 2021 that de Villiers had previously shown him pornographic videos during several sleepovers, and touched his penis. He said de Villiers had put his mouth on the child's penis. The child told police the assaults occurred "again, again and again." The court determined the sexual assaults occurred between five and eight times.
During trial, De Villiers denied the allegations against him. He claimed that an apologetic voicemail he left for the child's father had to do with him feeling bad about overstepping his role as a friend, by playing a quasi-parental role in the child's life, and not for sexually assaulting the man's son.
The Crown and Justice Leonard agreed during sentencing that despite a not-guilty plea and resulting trial, that voicemail shows that De Villiers had remorse for his actions.
De Villiers did not speak during Monday’s sentencing hearing.
He will also be required to register as a sex offender for 20 years, not possess firearms for life and stay away from the victim’s home and school, for life.
De Villiers is also facing separate child sex charges, stemming from allegations between January 2017 and December 2019 in Alberta. He's scheduled to face trial on those charges in August.
with files from Nich Johansen
