Albert de Villiers faces additional charges in connection to alleged sexual offences involving children. (Image: CHJC Today Kamloops)

By Erika Rolling

Former AHS North Zone top doctor facing more charges for sexual offences involving children

Aug 25, 2022 | 2:40 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB – The Grande Prairie Special Investigative Unit has laid additional charges against the former lead medical officer for Alberta Health Services (AHS) North Zone, who was in the role for over 16 years.

Following the initial investigation in 2021 of Albert de Villiers, RCMP received another report of more sexual offenses involving a child on January 14, 2022.

The alleged offenses took place between January 2017 and December 2019. The Grande Prairie Special Investigative Unit conducted the investigation with assistance from Olds RCMP.

Albert de Villiers, 52, who now resides in Kelowna, B.C., was charged on August 23, 2022, with invitation to sexual touching, voyeurism, and making sexually explicit materials available to a child.

Those charges are in addition to ones laid last June that include sexual assault and sexual interference.

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de Villiers was released on multiple conditions following a judicial hearing, including not being in the presence of any person under the age of 16 without supervision.

He is scheduled to be in Grande Prairie Provincial Court on September 12, 2022, for the January 2022 investigation.

A trial is scheduled to take place between January 10-12, 2023, in Grande Prairie, and is also scheduled for a pre-trial conference set to begin on October 21, 2022, for the initial investigation in 2021.

de Villiers was the top doctor in the AHS North Zone from 2004 to July 2020, before moving on to the role of chief medical officer for B.C. Interior Health from August 2020 to June 2021.