Also accused of secretly videotaping men using public washroom

A former Guelph doctor has been stripped of his medical licence due to professional misconduct relating to possession of child pornography and secretly videotaping men using a public washroom.

Kevin Johnston, 44, operated the Guelph Medical Clinic at 320 Eastview Rd. in 2015 and 2016. The practice closed in June.

The charges Johnston faced stemmed from incidents that happened several years before he opened his practice in Guelph.

The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons posted its decision last week, finding he committed professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a physician.

Johnston pleaded no contest to the accusations at an October hearing, not contesting them but not admitting to them either.

Johnston had previously been acquitted of criminal charges relating to the same child pornography charge in 2013.

The professional college is not bound by the decisions of a criminal court.

According to the written decision delivered last week, Johnston lost his licence for purchasing and being in possession of 14 CDs containing pornographic images of children and of making hidden videos in a men's public washroom.

The board ruling said Johnston bought CDs off a web site in 2010 that depicted nude pubescent and pre-pubescent boys and later downloaded them to his personal computer.

It was noted that the child porn did not contain explicit sexual activity or violence.

Johnston was acquitted in criminal court of the child porn charge because the Crown failed to prove that Johnston "knew the nature and content of the images that he ordered," says the college's decision.

The college used a followup report from the Toronto police that they were sent to help make their decision.

The voyeurism charge stems from videos police found while searching Johnston's apartment in 2011.

In addition to hidden videos found showing men using the bathroom, a pin-hole camera device was also confiscated.

Since 2012 Johnston had been allowed to continue his practice, including the two years in Guelph, although there were restrictions placed on him, most notably that he was not allowed to be alone with any patients under 18.

In March that restriction included that the person monitoring visits with patients under 18 had to be approved by the college.

He stopped practicing at the Eastview Road practice that time and patients were notified in June it was closing for good. A sign on the door at the time said the clinic was closed due to "medical illness."

Johnston, who also worked in Kitchener in 2015 and 2016, has not practiced since.

Johnston previously worked in Cambridge, Mississauga, St. Catharines and Toronto under the name Kevin Speight.

A Toronto Star story on Johnston's hearing last month said that he told the college board he was "very sorry."

Johnston was also ordered to pay $5,000 in costs to the college.