A GTA optometrist faces the possibility of having his license suspended for four months after a panel found him guilty Thursday of sexually abusing three patients who were also his employees.

Dr. Jon Barnes, who has a practice in Beaverton and Stouffville, admitted to drawing obscene images on his office whiteboard, making sexually crude remarks in the office and writing sexual comments in his patients’ medical files.

His admissions were in an agreed statement of facts to a College of Optometrists of Ontario panel.

Read more:

Toronto doctor's sex abuse case hinges on whether woman was actually his patient

“The facts of this case are shocking,” Bonnie Ellis, lawyer for the college, told the hearing. “The nature of the conduct is shocking.”

Barnes also admitted to having angry outbursts where he would raise his voice, bang the walls, use profanities and break furniture.

The complaint that prompted the hearing was made in November 2016, and a college investigation began that same month.

The allegations relate to behaviour from Barnes that began in 2002.

Each employee submitted victim impact statements, one of which was read by the victim herself.

“I would see his perverted sexual notes in his patients’ files,” she said. “The whole experience has made me not trust people, especially doctors.”

Two of the three employees have resigned from their jobs with Barnes.

One employee said that she was not a victim of Barnes, and was not negatively affected by his comments.

Barnes also admitted to using white out to cover the sexual comments on patient files, both before and after the investigation began.

The statement also said Barnes didn’t initially believe his words and images were hurtful, but humorous.

After the investigation began, Barnes voluntarily attended courses in an attempt to reform his behaviour. A counsellor he saw wrote that he was at “low risk for reoffending.”

In a joint submission, counsel for Barnes and the college recommended that he have his license be suspended for four months; take an ethics course; pay the college $30,000 for investigation and legal costs; and pay $43,000 for the therapy and counselling for the employees he abused.

The panel will make a decision at a future date.

Ellis said that the recommendations were not meant to punish Barnes, but to “protect the public.”

She added that the original complainant approved of the joint submission’s recommendations.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The employees who Barnes abused were present at the tribunal hearing.

During a recess, Barnes spoke to the employees about lottery tickets, but they did not reply.

Barnes became in optometrist in 1990, and started his practice in Beaverton that year.