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Former West Australian champion footballer Barry Cable has been found not guilty of historical child sex abuse charges dating back to the 1960s.
Cable had consistently denied the charges in a judge-alone criminal trial, which heard he had allegedly abused a girl aged about eight or nine at his family home.
The 82-year-old learned his fate in Perth’s District Court on Monday afternoon, which was handed down by Judge Michael Bowden.
Cable did not speak to media outside court, but his son Shane read a statement from the family, saying the verdict had brought some closure to a “stressful and chaotic period in our lives and for the whole family”. Shane said he was pleased with the court’s decision, but “certainly not surprised”.
“It’s the first and only criminal case that dad’s ever faced in his 82 years, and he’s always maintained his innocence,” Shane Cable said.
“To our family, dad is someone that’s always inspired so many people through his football, dedicated his life after football to community works, and the allegations that were made were at extreme odds with, certainly, the Barry that we know and have loved our whole life.
“Today’s approval hopefully brings some closure, but we do ask that, obviously, mum and dad, both in their 80s, I think they need to live the twilight of their lives out with some dignity, and we would ask that you respect their privacy.”
Prosecutors had alleged Cable abused the girl at his family home when she was staying with him and his wife, Helen, for about a month.
The woman reported the alleged abuse to police in 2023 when she spotted Cable on television, telling the court during the trial that it had “brought back memories of what he had done to me”.
The abuse allegedly involved penetrative sex on multiple occasions when Cable’s wife was asleep.
Cable denied five counts of indecent dealing with a girl aged under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13 between December 31, 1966 and December 31, 1969.
During the trial, Cable’s defence lawyer, Tom Percy, KC, accused the woman of making up the allegations and suggested the incident never happened.
Percy repeatedly accused the woman of exaggerating the allegations and suggested she was motivated by financial gain, after she learned his client had been found guilty of similar allegations during a civil trial in 2023.
Asked why she had not reported it at the time, the woman said: “He told me no one would believe me because he was Barry Cable”.
In his published decision, Bowden said he had scrutinised and generally accepted the woman’s evidence, “and have found that Mr Cable has the tendency alleged”, but he was “not persuaded of guilt beyond reasonable doubt in respect of any count on the indictment and acquit Mr Cable in respect of each count”.
Separate civil proceedings in the same court three years ago found Cable had abused a different girl over five years from 1968 when she was aged 12. That victim was awarded $818,700 in damages.
Cable was a two-time VFL premiership player with North Melbourne Football Club in the 1970s.
He was also a highly regarded footballer in the Western Australian Football League, winning four premierships and three league best-and-fairest awards in the 1960s and 1970s.
Cable returned to WA as East Perth captain-coach, winning another WAFL premiership and finishing with a then record-breaking 379 games across all competitions as a player.
He moved back to Victoria to coach North Melbourne in the early 1980s and was later named rover in the Kangaroos’ team of the century.
Following the decision in the civil court case in 2023, Cable was subsequently removed from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, and was later also removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame and the West Australian Football Hall of Fame.
North Melbourne stripped the former player of life membership and also removed him from the club’s hall of fame, while East Perth and Perth football clubs also revoked his life membership.
with AAP
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