A second woman has alleged Australian Rules great Barry Cable sexually abused her as a child, but says she was emotionally blackmailed not to press charges.

February 10, 2023

A second woman has accused legendary Australian Rules footballer Barry Cable of sexually abusing her when she was a child.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims the now 79-year-old inappropriately touched her in the 1980s and 90s.

“He was rubbing my breasts and he had started to move his hands down south,” she told the District Court in Perth on Friday as she detailed one of the alleged incidents.

“It’s so weird, his face changed and I had never seen him like that before.”

Another adult close to Cable interrupted the incident after the famous rover had stripped the then-teen naked and he stopped the abuse, the court heard.

All told, the triple Sandover Medal winner was allegedly sexually inappropriate with the woman on two occasions in Perth when she was aged between eight and 14.

She also said he offered her money to repeat the abuse on another occasion.

The claims were made amid a civil trial brought by another woman against Cable over abuse that she allegedly suffered as a child and teenager.

The woman giving evidence on Friday said her family had been close to the Cable family and she had informally reported the incidents to police.

She said the officer she spoke to told her police could arrest and charge Cable if she wanted to make a formal complaint against him.

The woman sobbed as she told the court the alleged incidents were also known within the families and she was “emotionally blackmailed” not to press charges against Cable.

“It was not a topic anyone wanted to discuss because he was famous,” she said.

“Everyone was concerned about shielding him.”

The woman also said she became aware as she got older that there was another alleged victim “who had got it far worse”.

She said she discussed the woman with police.

The woman told the court she confronted Cable when she was in her early 20s about the incidents and he apologised and said he had started attending church.

She also said she was concerned Cable would abuse other children because he had a “problem” and “liked girls that age”.

The woman who launched the legal case claims Cable started sexually assaulting her when she was 13 in the late 1960s.

It allegedly continued through her teenage years and escalated from sexualised conversations and unwanted touching to “degrading” sexual violence and forceful intercourse.

During one incident, Cable – who was not in the court – allegedly forcibly sexually assaulted the then-teen at the Perth Football Club in 1971, where he was both captain and coach.

Afterwards the former All-Australian player allegedly struck the girl in the face with the back of his hand causing her lip to bleed when she told him he should “stick to grown-up, real women”.

Cable, who denies the claims and is not facing criminal charges, also allegedly “relentlessly” assaulted her in his garden shed, his car and at a public swimming pool, and in his family home while his wife and children slept.

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

Cable claims the pair had a consensual relationship but the woman denied it and gave confronting evidence to the court for two days about the emotional and physical abuse.

She also detailed the trauma and tragic consequences she has suffered, including lifelong mental and physical health issues that have impacted her marriage, relationships, education and ability to work.

Three mental health experts, who gave evidence on Friday about the severe damage Cable’s alleged assaults had caused the woman, said they had no doubt she had suffered sexual abuse.