Former Interior Health Top Doctor Receives 5.5 Year Prison Sentence for Sexual Interference Against a Child

Former Interior Health Chief Medical Officer Albert de Villiers has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for sexually abusing a child.

Alberta Bench Justice Shaina Leonard issued the decision yesterday, after finding him guilty of both sexual interference and assault in February.

But the sentencing only covers the interference portion of that ruling, after the sexual assault charges were stayed.

In her initial decision, Leonard found that de Villiers had inappropriately touched a friend’s child as many as eight times between 2018 and 2020.

During that time, the boy was between 7 and 10 years old, and Dr de Villiers was serving as a Medical Officer in Alberta.

He would fill that role for 16 years before moving to Kelowna in 2021, where he would be arrested amid accusations of repeated sexual offenses.

In August, de Villiers will appear in court again to fight unrelated charges of voyeurism, sexual touching, and making explicit materials available to a child.