Football great Barry Cable is alleged to have told a teenager she was lucky and would eventually thank him when sexually abusing her more than 50 years ago.

February 9, 2023

Legendary Australian Rules footballer Barry Cable allegedly told a girl he is accused of sexually abusing for years that she would eventually thank him for the assaults.

The now 79-year-old, who denies the claims and is not facing criminal charges, also allegedly said his victim would beg for more and he was “training” her to be a hit with men.

Cable’s accuser, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is suing the triple Sandover Medal winner for damages over the abuse that allegedly started in the late 1960s when he was at the height of his playing career.

She has told a court the former North Melbourne player regularly abused her through her teenage years when he was living in Perth.

It allegedly started when she was 12 or 13 with sexualised conversation and escalated sexual violence and forceful intercourse

“At those times he was saying regularly ‘look at what you do to me’,” she told the Western Australian District Court civil trial on Thursday.

“‘You will beg me for this one day. You will thank me one day’, as part of the training sessions (he would say during the abuse).

“He would verbally impress upon me how lucky I was and say I would be a great hit with men and how his penis loved me.”

Cable’s alleged abuse also included sexually assaulting the teen at his family home while his wife and children were asleep in bed.

“Mrs Cable had gone to bed … and he would start fondling my breasts and vagina … sometimes he would get my hand and make me fondle him and tell me how good I was at at doing that,” she said

“If I was staying over I don’t remember it not occurring.”

The woman said Cable also assaulted her in his garden shed, his car and at a public swimming pool.

“He would get my hand and put it in his groin over his shorts and sometimes he would have his penis out and make me touch it,” she said.

“It was always about his penis and touching him.”

The alleged abuse continued for about five years with almost weekly assaults, described as “Barry doing his usual thing”.

Cable – who was not in the court and was never charged – also allegedly sexually assaulted the then-teen at a public pool and in the Perth Football Club’s change room in 1971.

After the incident at the club, Cable allegedly hit the girl in the face causing her lip to bleed when she told him he should “stick to grown-up, real women”.

The woman said Cable said no one would believe her if she told anyone about the abuse and that she was afraid he would hurt her if she didn’t do what he told her.

The woman said the abuse caused her to hate herself and start binge-eating and using laxatives, leading to a lifelong medical condition.

“After any contact with him and even the thought of him coming around … I would be so anxious or sick feeling, like really wanting to vomit, and just want to harm and purge myself,” she said.

“I would just binge eat. It gave me some sort of temporary relief.”

The woman said the abuse continued when she became an adult and got married, with Cable allegedly stalking her and coercing her to have sex on numerous occasions at her home and in hotel rooms.

Lawyer Tim Hammond said on Wednesday the abuse has left the woman with lifelong mental health challenges, including chronic stress disorder.

Mr Hammond also said he intended to call evidence from another woman who also claimed she was abused by the footballer.

The trial continues.