Date: 9 April 2025
Source: Australian Federal Police (AFP)

A Geelong man has been ordered to pay the Commonwealth more than $850,000 and have his assets confiscated, after creating and selling an online child exploitation-themed video game which had thousands of paying subscribers.

The Victorian County Court handed down the orders in late March 2025, after an investigation by the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT). This grew out of a Victorian Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) criminal investigation into the game, which featured animated child exploitation images and allowed subscribers to simulate the sexual abuse of children.

The 32 year old man was charged after JACET members, from the AFP and Victoria Police, executed warrants at his Highton home in August 2023. They seized multiple electronic devices, which contained more than 140,000 child exploitation-files related to the game, and child-abuse files involving real children.

He was charged with multiple Commonwealth offences and has been sentenced to 11 years and nine months’ imprisonment, with...