HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's highest court has awarded an additional $60,000 in compensation to the victim of a notorious pedophile, saying the trial judge didn't account for the victim's future counselling costs.
In February 2010, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ordered the province to pay a settlement of $375,000 to the man -- known only as L.M.M. -- for abuse suffered at the hands of Cesar Lalo, his former probation officer.
The man appealed the award two months ago, arguing the trial judge had erred in failing to award costs for counselling and refusing to admit expert evidence from his psychologist.
In a written decision, Chief Justice Michael MacDonald of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal accepted the argument that there was a failure to award counselling costs.
MacDonald said that was an "oversight" by the trial judge.
But he upheld the trial judge's decision not to accept the expert evidence that linked the man's emotional problems to the abuse, saying there were flaws in the psychologist's methods.
"The litany of shortcomings, in my view, more than justifies the judge's decision to exclude this evidence," MacDonald wrote in a decision released Tuesday.
Lalo was originally tried by a jury and convicted of two counts of sexual assault and one act of gross indecency against L.M.M., for which he received a five-year prison sentence.
The offences occurred between November 1986 and June 1988, when L.M.M. was 13 to 15 years of age.
During the original trial, court heard that the 37-year-old victim is a disturbed man with a history of drug abuse who can't maintain a relationship or hold down a job.
Lalo, who also worked as child welfare worker for the province, has either admitted to or been convicted of abusing 30 boys.
