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Former champion footballer Barry Cable allegedly exploited his close connections to access young girls, a court has been told.
The 82-year-old is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations, allegedly involving a girl aged about eight, in a criminal trial in Perth.
He has 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.
Prosecutor Andrea Jennings said Cable had an illustrious football career, and was very well known and very well liked during the period.
“But behind that spotlight there was a darker side,” she told the judge-only trial in the WA District Court during her opening remarks on Tuesday.
The former North Melbourne player was allegedly attracted to young girls and he used his familial relationships and close connections to access them, Ms Jennings said.
Cable is accused of abusing the girl, who is the subject of the charges against him, at his family home when she was staying with him and his wife, Helen, for about a month.
The alleged victim, now a woman, told the court Cable treated her well at first.
“He was loving towards me like an uncle … then things changed,” she said.
“He started touching my body.”
The abuse allegedly involved physical contact, vaseline and penetrative sex on multiple occasions when Cable’s wife was asleep.
“He told me he loved me and that’s how we showed each other love,” the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said.
The woman reported the alleged abuse to police in 2023 when she spotted Cable on television.
“It brought back memories of what he had done to me,” she said.
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”.
The abuse continued on a near-daily basis until she was returned to her then-home, the woman said.
Cable allegedly called the girl useless on one occasion when his attempt to have sex with her was not successful.
Cable’s lawyer, Tom Percy KC, accused the woman of making up the allegations after she learned his client had been found guilty of similar allegations during a civil trial in 2023 in a bid to “cash in”, which she forcefully denied.
The description and location of the fancy home where the offending allegedly happened did not match the house the Cables lived in at the time, he said.
There was also no opportunity for the abuse to occur because Mrs Cable was always at the home, Mr Percy said.
The allegations “don’t hold together at any level”, he said.
The woman was dishonest and had made abuse complaints against numerous other people, including a priest and one of Cable’s brothers, the lawyer said.
The civil trial in the same court found Cable abused a girl over five years from 1968 when she was aged 12. The victim was awarded $818,700 in damages.
The civil trial judge said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children.
Cable, who repeatedly attempted to have the civil case proceedings permanently thrown out and did not attend the trial, denied the abuse.
He was later stripped of his Australian Football Hall of Fame honours following an illustrious playing career in the 1960s and ’70s for Perth and East Perth in the WAFL and North Melbourne in the VFL, going on to coach in both leagues.
He has been dumped from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the West Australian Football Commission revoked the former champion’s Hall of Fame membership, including his Legend status.
The trial is expected to run until March 18.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
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