Footy chap Barry Cable charged with historical child sex abuse

Australian football champion Barry Cable has been charged with historical child sex abuse, 10 months after a civil court found he had caused ‘catastrophic’ damage to a girl in the late 1960s.

Barry Cable has been charged with historical child sex abuse. Picture: The Australian

Australian football champion and former North Melbourne coach Barry Cable has been charged with historical child sex abuse, 10 months after a civil court found he had caused “catastrophic” damage to a girl he began abusing in the late 1960s when she was 12 years old.

Cable, 80, was accused by five women in a civil case last year of sexually abusing them when he was at the height of his football fame. Cable, who had always denied the allegation, did not attend court or contest the claims.

Child Abuse Squad detectives have charged Cable as a result of their investigation into historical child sexual abuse allegations against a girl who did not give evidence in court with the five others.

Champion rover Barry Cable holds the 1964 Sandover Medal. Picture: West Australian Newspapers Limited

“It will be alleged between 1967 and 1968 the man sexually assaulted a girl who was between 9 and 10 years old at the time,” West Australian Police said in a media release on Friday night.

“The man has been charged with five counts of ‘Indecent Dealing with Girl Under 13’ and two counts of ‘Unlawful Carnal Knowledge of a Girl Under 13 Years’.”

Cable is due to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Cable was born in the West Australian wheatbelt town of Narrogin to an Aboriginal mother and a non-Aboriginal father.

He was a champion rover and played for Perth in the WAFL, then for North Melbourne in the VFL. He was later the senior coach at North Melbourne and assistant coach at West Coast Eagles.

It was an open secret in Cable’s own community that at least one woman had accused him of abusing her as a child. A police investigation stalled in the late 1990s.