A Nova Scotia man has been designated a long-term offender and sentenced to nine years in prison for molesting boys under his supervision.

Cesar Lalo, 64, a former youth probation officer and child-welfare worker, also agreed to undergo drug treatment to reduce his sex drive.

"I think he's gonna do some hard time," one of his victims told ATV News Wednesday, who described this as "a good day."

His total jail time is now 18 years, which Crown prosecutor Catherine Cogswell said was either "the highest or second-highest sentence given to a pedophile in Canadian history."

"To me, the biggest point to all this is that Cesar Lalo has finally come to court and acknowledged responsibility that he sexually victimized 29 victims," said Crown prosecutor Rob Fetterly.

The crimes all occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. It's been 15 years since his last assault. He stepped down as a probation officer in 1989 when the abuse allegations first surfaced.

"The evidence of the offences against these children provides compelling stories of horrid, brazen, callous acts of indecent and sexual assault, gross indecency, buggery and attempted buggery," Justice Heather Robertson of Nova Scotia Supreme Court said in passing sentence.

"All but two of his victims were children in his charge for whom he had undertaken to protect, counsel and provide guidance."

All the victims were between age 11 and 17 at the time of the offences.

Lalo began serving his first nine-year sentence in 1993 for seven offences and has been in jail ever since, even though his sentence expired in August 2002. He was convicted in 2003 of 15 additional offences and then admitted to seven more.

While Lalo was given a nine-year sentence, he was given a double-credit for the two years he spent in jail dealing with the most recent charges.

During his court appearances, four experts testified that as a homosexual pedophile, Lalo was a risk to reoffend because pedophiles are never cured.

Prosecutors wanted Lalo declared a dangerous offender, which meant he was shown to be unable to control his sexual or violent impulses. That would have left him jailed indefinitely.

However, the court chose to deem him a long-term offender, which means he will be under the supervision of the courts for 10 years after he gets out of prison and will be required to continue drug treatment over that time.

"Once we got to the sentencing phase of this prosecution, our concern ... was to protect children from Cesar Lalo," Cogswell said.

Those who were abused by Lalo still suffer from it. "My life has been very hard, a hard road," the victim said.

The man's brother was also an alleged victim, but the Crown didn't proceed because that man died of a self-administered drug overdose in 1997.

"We were trying to escape reality a lot of the times," the man, now 41, said, his voice breaking. "So, to see this happen today will bring some closure for me."

"Justice was served," Fetterly said. "I think folks can move along in their lives and say this chapter of their life is over."

But the victim said he will be launching a civil action over this case.

With a report from ATV's Rick Grant