A woman who alleges football legend Barry Cable sexually abused her says he attempted to rape her in the change room of the Perth Football Club in the early 1970s.
Warning: This story contains graphic details
Key points:
- The woman alleges the abuse started when she was a teenager
- But she says it continued after she turned 18
- Mr Cable denies the allegations and says they had a three-year “consensual sexual relationship”
The details are included in court documents provided to the ABC ahead of a five-day civil trial due to start on Wednesday, when the woman’s case will be heard by District Court Judge Mark Herron.
She is seeking damages of around $1 million, claiming she was “catastrophically damaged by the sexual abuse she suffered”.
Mr Cable, who’s now 79, denies all the allegations and has never been charged.
‘I will teach you about the birds and the bees’
In her statement of claim, the woman alleges the sexual abuse started in the late 1960s when she was a teenager and her family and Mr Cable’s family lived in the same neighbourhood.
She says Mr Cable once told her “he would teach her about the facts of life and the birds and the bees” so “she would be a big hit with men” before he regularly molested her at various locations including in his car at a scenic location known as Zig Zag in Gooseberry Hill.
She also submits that when talking to her, he would frequently refer to his penis as “his totem pole”.
She further alleges that around 1971, Mr Cable took her to the Perth Football Club, where in the change rooms, he forced her onto a bench, attempted to rape her and struck her across the mouth as they were driving home.
The woman claims Mr Cable also threatened to sexually abuse her younger sister if she did not comply with his instructions or “properly appreciate his attention”.
The woman is seeking damages, claiming she has suffered psychiatric harm, including a loss of enjoyment of life and lost earning capacity.
Mr Cable is considered one of the greatest West Australian footballers of all time after a lengthy and successful career in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and West Australian Football League (WAFL).
He also had a lengthy coaching career, which included a stint as an assistant coach with the West Coast Eagles during their first season in the VFL.
Treatment a ‘severe breach of trust’
“The sexual assault and child sexual abuse of the plaintiff by the defendant was a severe breach of trust and constituted exploitative and criminal behaviour,” the court documents state.
“The behaviour was predatory, in contumelious disregard of the plaintiff and her rights to a safe and happy childhood, and constituted an unequivocal breach of the trust vested in the defendant by the plaintiff, and is deserving of condign punishment.”
The initial abuse is alleged to have happened while the girl was aged between about 12 and 17, but the woman also says the sexual behaviour and harassment continued after she turned 18, including when she says Mr Cable employed her as his private nurse after he injured his leg in 1979 in a tractor accident.
The woman says she was molested at the old East Perth football oval on Lord Street and that Mr Cable would regularly turn up at her home without invitation, causing her to become “increasingly fearful and intimidated” by him.
Mr Cable describes relationship as ‘consensual’
Mr Cable is not taking part in the trial and is not represented by a lawyer, but he has filed a defence in which he states he had a three-year “consensual sexual relationship” with the woman around 1983.
However, he denies “any allegedly illegal or improper contact” with the woman, arguing he was never alone with her when she was a minor.
He also points out that between 1974 and 1977, he and his family lived in Melbourne because he was playing for North Melbourne in the VFL.
Mr Cable disputes the woman’s claim about her caring for him after his tractor accident in 1979, saying she only came to help his wife for two days but did not provide care for him.
The woman cannot be identified, but in a decision delivered on Tuesday Judge Mark Herron ruled Mr Cable, whose identity had previously been suppressed, could now be named.