The intercourse assault trial for Inside Well being’s former chief medical well being officer received underway in Grande Prairie, Alta., on Tuesday.
Dr. Albert Stefanus de Villiers, who was the B.C. well being authority’s high physician till June 2021, is on trial for expenses of sexual assault and sexual interference within the northern Alberta metropolis. He pleaded not responsible to all expenses initially of the three day trial.
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The costs of sexual assault and sexual interference, the courtroom heard, are for occasions alleged to have taken place between June 15, 2018, and July 31, 2020, close to Grande Prairie.
The courtroom heard that the alleged sufferer of sexual touching was a toddler, now 11, whose household was so shut with de Villiers, that he was known as “uncle.”
The boy mentioned he and his sibling had spent the evening at de Villiers’ residence collectively a few occasions and he had stayed there alone 4 or 5 occasions. In video testimony recorded in 2021, when the allegations had been made to police, the boy mentioned that on a couple of event, on his solo sleepover, he was proven nudity on a pill. He mentioned he’d been requested to the touch de Villiers sexually and he additionally was touched sexually.
De Villiers moved away from the city the place the boy’s household lived however they maintained weekly contact by way of video calls. Throughout one in every of these calls, the boy testified that de Villiers as soon as requested him if his penis had gotten larger.
The boy’s father testified that when he discovered about what had been taking place in Might 2021, he instantly reported what he heard to the RCMP and reduce off contact with de Villiers, who had since moved from the city they each lived in, to the Okanagan, the place he labored for Inside Well being.
Proof submitted by the Crown on the primary day of the trial included testimony from the boy, his father and a police officer who took an announcement when the grievance was initially made.
Yet another witness for the Crown is predicted to testify Wednesday.
Because of the age of the folks concerned within the trial, there’s a publication ban overlaying their identities and something that will provide perception into them.
De Villiers was arrested on June 8, 2021, with help from Kelowna RCMP.
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He was in custody in a single day and on June 9 was launched on a launch order by consent within the quantity of $1,500 with no money deposit or surety, with circumstances.
De Villiers took over as chief medical well being officer of Inside Well being in August 2020.
Beforehand he labored out of Grand Prairie because the lead medical well being officer with Alberta’s north zone. He initially got here to Canada from South Africa.
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