OLDS — Additional charges have been laid by the Grande Prairie Special Investigative Unit and the local RCMP against a former top physician previously set to stand trial next January over sexual offences involving a minor.
A joint press statement issued on Thursday, Aug. 25 by Mounties in Grande Prairie and Olds said that following an initial investigation, an additional report was received of sexual offences involving a child alleged to have occurred between Jan. 2017 and Dec. 2019.
As a result of the collaborative cross-jurisdiction investigation, Albert de Villiers, 54, a resident of Kelowna, B.C., was charged with invitation to sexual touching, voyeurism as well as making sexually explicit material available to a child, reads a portion of the statement.
Following a judicial hearing, de Villiers was released on multiple conditions, including not being in the presence of anyone under the age of 16 without supervision. He is next scheduled to appear in Grande Prairie Provincial Court on Sept. 12.
Responding to follow-up questions including why the Kelowna resident facing prior charges from the Grande Prairie RCMP was arrested in Olds, media relations officer Cpl. Patrick McPhee said the accused, as it worked out, ended up turning himself in to the Olds detachment.
“They literally just opened the door and said come on in,” McPhee said on Aug. 25 during a phone interview. “Olds RCMP’s role in this was to assist us in conducting the arrest (and) in dealing with the process.”
As for why the accused was even in Olds in the first place, McPhee could not say for certain.
“The lead investigators don’t know why,” he said. “The only person that knows, is him. That would be a question for Mr. de Villiers.”
And while the accused is the same person named in last year’s police press release, the fresh set of charges come as a result of a new investigation.
“This is a completely separate investigation,” said McPhee.
The initial but separate investigation began last year, when the Grande Prairie RCMP Special Investigative Unit laid charges against a then 52-year-old male after looking into allegations of sexual assaults that reportedly happened between 2018 and 2020.
In an original press release dated June 8, 2021, the Grande Prairie RCMP said the detachment had received a report of sexual offences against a young child that had purportedly occurred between 2018 and 2020. The special investigative unit, with assistance from the Grande Prairie Caribou Centre, subsequently opened a file looking into the matter.
Then, on June 8, 2021, Albert de Villiers was arrested in Kelowna, B.C. with help from Mounties in that jurisdiction. The accused was subsequently charged with one count of sexual assault and sexual interference. Following a judicial hearing, he was released from custody on conditions to appear before a provincial court in Grande Prairie on June 30, 2021.
Asked if the latest investigation is connected to the original one, the corporal said the only connection is “as a result of the media release that came out. A witness saw the media release and then they came forward and gave us some information that led us to conduct a separate investigation.”
The corporal, who could not speak to specific dates involved in either investigation, confirmed timelines from both had some overlap.
“I can say that between the initial investigation and the subsequent investigation that they were within a similar timeframe,” he said.
McPhee was also unable to confirm how many victims are involved or whether they knew one another, primarily because such details will come out in the judiciary process but also to avoid inadvertently causing the victims any additional distress.
“We worry about further trauma to the victim, and them having to re-live it,” he said.
But police have no reason to believe there are any other victims involved in the case, he said.
“At this point, there’s no information to suggest that there’s going to be other victims,” he said.
At the time of his initial arrest, de Villiers was the top doctor for B.C.’s Interior Health Authority
