Disgraced football great Barry Cable accused of abusing girls in spa
Aaron Bunch
Disgraced football legend Barry Cable fondled two young girls in a backyard spa and exposed himself in front of other children, a court has been told.
The 82-year-old former Australian rules player is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations relating to a girl aged about eight in a criminal trial in Perth.
He allegedly abused the girl at his family home in the late 1960s when she was staying with Cable and his wife Helen for about a month.
The abuse allegedly involved intimate physical contact and attempted penetrative sex on multiple occasions when Cable’s wife was asleep.
A different woman told the court on Wednesday that Cable touched her breasts and pulled his erect penis from his bathers in a spa in Melbourne in the early 1980s when she was about 10 years old.
“He would always say, ‘Oh, come on girls, give me a cuddle’,” she told the judge-only trial in the WA District Court.
“When he got really confident, he actually pulled my bathers to the side [when he had] an erect penis.”
The former North Melbourne player also allegedly put the girl on his knee and tried to penetrate her with his penis, the woman said.
The incidents allegedly involved one other child.
“Every time we were in the spa, it would happen,” she said.
“We would say … ‘Barry, stop it’ and he would laugh.”
Defence lawyer Tom Percy KC accused the woman of making up the allegations and suggested the incident never happened.
“It certainly did … who would want to go through this?” she replied.
The woman’s childhood friend also testified about her alleged interactions with Cable at a spa when she was about 12.
“I was sitting on his knee and I remember him pulling his bathers aside, and I saw his penis,” she said.
The woman said she remembered feeling Cable’s penis against her bottom.
“I got off [his lap], it was really uncomfortable,” she said.
“Then he was, like, fondling my breasts.”
Other young children, including the first witness, were in the spa when the incident happened, the woman said.
Percy repeatedly accused the woman of exaggerating the allegations and suggested she was motivated by financial gain.
“I’ve told you my truth and what happened, and I’m under oath,” she said.
The complainant in the criminal trial alleges Cable’s abuse continued on a near-daily basis while she stayed at his home as a child.
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.
Percy 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.
She forcefully denied trying to “cash in” during her evidence on Tuesday.
The civil trial found Cable abused another girl over five years from 1968, when she was aged 12. The woman was awarded $818,700 in damages.
The judge in that trial said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children. Cable denied the abuse.
He had 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.
The criminal trial continues.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
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