‘It defies logic’: Opposition grills NDP over sex offender doctor’s salary

B.C.’s opposition party is demanding answers from the NDP government, as to why the former medical health officer of Interior Health was still paid for a full year after he was arrested for sexual assault of a child.

The BC United Party said Albert de Villiers was paid $346,536 in taxpayer funds for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Health critic Shirley Bond calls it appalling that the doctor continued to collect his salary while on trial, adding he should have been put on unpaid leave until the trial was over.

“It defies logic that hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds were spent to pay the salary of someone on trial for such horrible crimes,” Bond said.

People deserve an explanation of how this was allowed to happen in the first place and what this government is doing to ensure it never happens again.”

BC United said since April of 2021, de Villiers has been paid more than $700,000 in public funds, despite being arrested and charged with sexual assault and sexual interference against a child in Grande Prairie, Alberta, in June of that year.

On February 7, 2023, de Villiers was convicted on the sexual interference charge and was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.