Woman reveals horrific toll of alleged child sexual abuse by AFL legend Barry Cable

A woman who accused an Australian rules football legend of long-term sexual abuse from when she was a child claims he affected her emotionally.

The woman, whose identity is withheld, took the stand on Wednesday afternoon on the first day of the civil trial against Barry Cable in the District Court of Western Australia.

Referred to as ZYX in court documents, the woman alleges that Mr. Cable sexually abused and harassed her as a teenager, beginning in 1967 and continuing on and off until 1991.

Cable denies the claims.

The woman read a 68-page police statement made in 1998, which included details of the allegations already filed in court documents.

The former kangaroo, considered one of the greatest rovers in the sport’s history after a long career in the WAFL and VFL, allegedly threatened to harass the woman’s sister.

The alleged abuse involved Mr. Cable exposing himself to the woman, who was a child at the time, fondling her breasts and genitals and forcing her to touch her genitals.

“He told me ‘no one would believe you,'” ZYX read from his 1998 police statement, saying he went through with the abuse to save his sister from the same fate.

‘If I hadn’t, he would say'[her sister] she will be my special girl. He wishes he was dead.

‘He always got what he wanted. It’s like he doesn’t give him anything about me.

‘He would say that I was useless, who would believe me, that’s all I’m good for.

“He was very obese at this point, so I believed him.”

Under questioning by her lawyer Tim Hammond, the plaintiff detailed how the alleged abuse led her to overeat, before purging herself with laxatives, in behavior that would eventually lead to bulimia.

The alleged abuse continued until she was in her 20s, when she claimed that Mr. Cable would turn up unannounced wherever she was.

Cable did not appear in court on Wednesday and is predicted not to appear at the trial.

He would always find me and get angry, or make me feel guilty and bad. I was afraid of Barry, afraid that he would hurt me if I didn’t comply,” she said.

‘I realized the best way to deal with Barry was to get it over with, since Barry never took no for an answer anyway.’

On multiple occasions during the late 1970s, the woman said she even tried to stop the alleged abuse, but claims Mr. Cable used gaslighting techniques to continue it.

‘I said that I was no longer a girl, I was a woman, it has to stop, but he said things like: we live, we die, it is what we do in between that matters; nobody knows what we’re going to, so it can’t be wrong; we are not hurting anyone; it’s good for you,’ he said.

“I felt numb and powerless, I had no control. I felt like a scared, mocked and humiliated child.’

It was an ABC Australian Story segment in 1996 that finally pushed her to make the statement to the police, but it was another two years before she was able to do so.

The alleged victim’s lawyer, Tim Hammond, enters court on Wednesday for the first of five days of civil action against the AFL Hall of Famer.

Wednesday’s hearing is the first of a five-day civil case. Cable denies all the accusations made and has never been charged.

The 79-year-old man was not present in court and is not believed to be personally involved in the proceedings.

Judge Mark Herron took the unusual step of proceeding without the defendant present.

Although the case was first filed in 2019, it was only on Tuesday that Judge Herron lifted a suppression order, allowing Cable’s name to be published.

The name of his alleged victim is still not allowed to be published, nor any details that allow him to be identified.

He will resume his testimony on the stand when the matter resumes on Thursday.