- Barry Cable wins bid for judge-alone trial
- Historical child sex charges date back decades
- He denies all allegations and charges completely
Barry Cable has secured a legal win in his high-profile child sex abuse case, with a judge ruling the former AFL champion will face a judge-alone trial.
The decision was handed down by District Court Judge John Staude in Perth after Cable’s legal team argued he would not receive a fair hearing in front of a jury due to widespread media coverage.
The 81-year-old, once considered one of the greatest footballers in Australian history, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of indecently dealing with a girl under 13 and two counts of carnal knowledge of a child under 13.
The charges relate to a single alleged victim and date back nearly 60 years to the late 1960s in Perth.
Cable’s legal team, led by barrister Tom Percy KC, said the public nature of the allegations and media scrutiny would make it impossible to find an impartial jury.
The judge agreed to the request for a judge-alone trial, which is now set to begin on March 10, 2026.
Former AFL legend Barry Cable arrives at court for his high-profile child sex abuse case with support from his sons
Cable faces seven child sex charges stemming from alleged incidents involving a young girl in the 1960s
Cable sat in the dock during Thursday’s hearing as his sons, Shane and Barry Junior, watched from the public gallery.
Judge Staude is yet to rule on a separate application from the prosecution to allow testimony from additional witnesses as propensity evidence.
Prosecutor Kim Jennings is seeking to introduce statements from three women who allege they were also abused by Cable in separate incidents in the 1960s and 1980s.
Those allegations are not the subject of any criminal charges but form part of the State’s argument that Cable had a tendency to engage in such behaviour.
Jennings told the court that the alleged victim in the current criminal trial was a ‘vulnerable’ child of about nine years old, allegedly abused in Cable’s Perth home while no one else was present.
The other witnesses allege they were indecently assaulted in a spa by Cable in Melbourne while others were nearby, during the early 1980s.
One of the claims to be considered for inclusion comes from a woman who previously brought a successful civil case against Cable.
In that matter, the court found her allegations – that Cable touched her ‘under the water’ when she was aged 12 – were substantially true on the balance of probabilities.
His legal team argued a fair jury trial was impossible after intense public attention and media reporting
Percy argued there was no strong connection between the different allegations and said ‘you can’t just say he had a generalised interest in young girls and had a tendency to act on it.’
He said the claims from Melbourne were ‘completely different’ from the Perth allegations and should not be considered in the same context.
‘There is no ‘aha’ moment,’ Percy said.
‘When you look at what is said to have happened in Melbourne, it was completely different. There’s really no similarity at all.’
Despite that, Jennings maintained that the cases shared ‘striking similarities’ in terms of the ages of the alleged victims, the environments, and Cable’s alleged behaviour patterns.
A ruling on whether this evidence will be admitted is expected in the coming weeks.
Cable was charged in May 2024 after a long investigation. The offences are alleged to have occurred when he was in his mid-20s and at the height of his playing career, having just won WAFL premierships in 1967 and 1968.
Since the allegations became public, Cable has been stripped of his AFL Legend and Hall of Fame honours.
North Melbourne removed him from their club’s Hall of Fame, and he was also cut from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
The upcoming trial is expected to last up to 10 days. The prosecution has flagged five potential witnesses, though the list is still being finalised.
The former football great has denied all allegations. He did not speak during the recent hearing but has previously stated that he intends to fight all charges.
