Barry Cable’s wife gives evidence at historical child sex abuse trial, but former AFL player stays silent

Barry Cable has chosen not to give evidence at his historical child sex abuse trial, but his wife took to the witness stand to deny serious allegations against the former AFL star. The State’s case wrapped up in the WA District Court on Thursday, when defence counsel Tom Percy said his 82-year-old client had elected not to testify. Mr Cable denies accusations he indecently dealt with and attempted to rape a girl multiple times while she stayed at his marital home for several weeks between 1967 and 1969 when she was aged eight or nine. He left the talking to his wife since 1959, Helen Cable, who repeatedly and firmly denied he would ever have had such an opportunity. Much of the short trial centred on the complainant, now aged in her 60s, describing their household as big, with a swimming pool and air-conditioning, although she admitted on Tuesday that she had mistakenly said it was near the beach. At that time, the Cables lived in a modest, two-bedroom house on a semirural lot in Gosnells, with two ex-racehorses outside. Mrs Cable, however, flatly denied the child had ever stayed at any of their homes in Perth. That was despite prosecutor Kim Jennings showing her official documents from the early 1970s suggesting the girl had stayed with them before and had been welcomed to return. “No, it never happened,” Mrs Cable said as their sons Barry Junior and Shane watched on from the public gallery. She repeated such denials several times, jumping in before the question was complete. The complainant alleges Mr Cable committed the acts when his wife was asleep or not in the room. But the 81-year-old insisted her husband hardly ever spent time at home without her. “It would be very, very rare,” she said. “I can’t imagine that ever happened because I was a homebody-type person - I liked to be at home.” Ms Jennings appeared to anger Mrs Cable, who described her leisure activities in those days as sewing and reading Christian books, when she accused her of being untruthful. “You’re prepared to tell lies,” the prosecutor said, reminding her she had sworn an oath with her hand on the Bible. “Absolutely not,” Mrs Cable shot back. The final prosecution witness - the complainant’s aunt - briefly gave evidence earlier via videolink from Busselton that she had a conversation with her niece about Mr Cable some 30 to 40 years ago. “She told me that he molested her,” the woman said. “He said he touched her and made her do stuff to him, sexually.” Under questioning by defence counsel Tom Percy, the woman said her niece gave no particulars, only that she was a child at the time, and did not mention it again until just before the trial. “It’s not the sort of thing you talk about,” the woman said. The 76-year-old witness admitted she did not recall making a statement about it to police in August 2024, when she described the conversation with her niece as occurring 25 years ago, but described her memory as “pretty OK”. “If you owed me money, I’d tell you,” she quipped. Sexual Assault Resource Centre 1800 199 888 Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800