Ex-Hamilton lawyer charged with sexual assault

A former lawyer disbarred for repeated sexual harassment of women at work has been charged with a historical sexual assault.

John Venn, who practised in Hamilton and Haldimand County, is facing two counts of sexual assault stemming from alleged incidents involving a victim in 2012, said Hamilton police Const. Lorraine Edwards.

“During the course of being a lawyer, he met the victim.”

The victim came forward in 2017.

Venn had his licence to practise law revoked by the Law Society of Upper Canada on April 25, 2016, after a hearing the year before, where he did not participate.

Venn was found guilty of professional misconduct for “sexually harassing numerous women in the Cayuga legal community by leering and making unwelcome sexually suggestive comments and advances over the years.” He was also found guilty of “unwanted touching.”

The law society investigation stemmed from one woman’s complaint in 2013.

Venn also faced discipline in 2003 for making sexual advances to four vulnerable family law clients in Hamilton.

In that case, which the tribunal found “amounted to sexual assault,” he told the law society he was undergoing therapy.

He was handed a one-month suspension and $5,000 fine.

Law society records show Venn was born in Britain and practised law in the British army for 17 years, before being licensed to practise law in Ontario in 1991.

He worked in Hamilton and later out of a satellite office in Dunnville.

According to court documents, Venn was charged in March and the case was briefly in Hamilton court Thursday.

His next court date is June 14. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. John Tselepakis at 905-546-5545.