Alec Stephen West’s household items to be sold to help pay a $850,000 pecuniary order

A Highton man who created a video game simulating child abuse has been sentenced to jail and has now had his assets seized to help pay a massive financial penalty.

Alec Stephen West has been jailed for a minimum eight years and four months.

Police will snatch $850,000 in assets from a depraved Geelong father who created a video game that simulated child abuse.

Alec Stephen West’s work was potentially sold and downloaded millions of times and last week resulted in him being jailed for a minimum eight years and four months.

West, 32, is now paying a high financial price after officers from the Australian Federal Police criminal assets confiscation taskforce swooped on his possessions following a guilty plea.

They seized 48 household items, including high-end televisions, audio equipment, furniture and appliances from the Highton property to be sold to help pay a $850,000 pecuniary order.

Devices suspected of being purchased with the profits of his subscriber-only filth were removed.

A total of $30,000 and two motor vehicles, also believed to be proceeds, were also confiscated.

Hi-tech equipment used by Alec Stephen West to produced a sick child exploitation video game. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Police towed vehicles from West’s Highton home. Picture: Australian Federal Police

Officers from the Australian Federal Police criminal assets confiscation taskforce swooped on West’s possessions. Picture: Australian Federal Police

West was ordered to pay a $850,000 pecuniary order. Picture: Australian Federal Police

A vacant room at West’s house. Picture: Australian Federal Police

The asset grab came off the back of the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team investigation which culminated in West’s guilty plea and jailing in the County Court.

JACET is made up of officers from the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police.

AFP Commander Jason Kennedy said stripping criminals of ill-gotten gains was a major priority for police.

Commander Kennedy said making a game out of exploiting some of the most vulnerable members of the community was sickening.

“But knowing any profits have been stripped away and diverted to serving the community is a balm to the wound,” he said.

West’s offending was described as sickening. Picture: supplied

“It’s a reminder we will not only hold criminals to account, we will also work to remove every shred of benefit they derive from their offending.”

Commander Kennedy said the AFP had dedicated experts nationwide working to take money from those who exploited children.

“Yours could be the next door we knock on,” he said.

Detective Supt Tim McKinney of Victoria Police’s cybercrime division said the case was a landmark inquiry.

“Legislation does not separate simulated offending against children from offending against live children – both are criminal offences. For this crime theme to be treated as a game is vile. To profit from this crime theme is utterly abhorrent.”

For three years until his arrest in August 2023, producing the game was a full time occupation for West, as he cultivated a following of thousands of subscribers, with the game potentially downloaded millions of times.

In the game, users were encouraged to commit incest and sexually abuse children as young as 12.

If the player chose not to commit the abuse, the game ended, the court heard.

While the characters in the game were animated, they were “lifelike” and, Judge Mullaly said, did much to normalise the abuse.

West was, in the words of Judge Gerard Mullaly, a “child abuse entrepreneur” who profited from the game to the tune of almost $1m.

West, the court heard, saw a “gap in the market” and exploited it.

West also collected child abuse material involving real life children that Judge Mullaly described as “some of the worst or near worst child abuse content”.

In sentencing West, Judge Mullaly noted problematic and troubling aspects of his character, revealed in a psychological report.

The court heard a psychologist found West had poor insight into his crimes, lacked remorse and displayed an entrenched deviance.

Originally published as Alec Stephen West’s household items to be sold to help pay a $850,000 pecuniary order