Disgraced football legend Barry Cable should be saved from jail following his wife’s sworn evidence, according to his high-profile lawyer Tom Percy.
Cable’s trial over child sexual abuse charges was told Helen Percy had delivered a ‘telling blow’ to the prosecution’s case.
The former Australian rules player, 82, is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations relating to a girl aged about eight or nine in a criminal trial in Perth.
He allegedly abused the child at his family home in the late 1960s when she was staying with Cable and his wife Helen for about a month.
Cable denies the claims.
Percy said the case against his client was ‘unsalvageable’ and there were no witnesses or forensic evidence to back the complainant’s claims.
Disgraced football legend Barry Cable should be saved from jail following his wife’s sworn evidence, according to his high-profile lawyer Tom Percy (Helen Cable is pictured, right)
The former Australian rules player, 82, is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations relating to a girl aged about eight or nine in a criminal trial in Perth
The woman’s description of where the offending allegedly took place was ‘seriously flawed and casts doubt on whether the events ever happened’, he told the WA District Court during his closing submissions on March 13.
‘Our case is the allegations are simply false.’
Mr Percy said a series of official documents from the early 1970s the prosecution said showed the girl stayed with the Cables were misinterpreted and show the former North Melbourne player had no opportunity to abuse her because the dates didn’t line up.
‘The only reasonable inference is she never went (to the Cables),’ Percy said.
Prosecution evidence from three other women who claim Cable sexually abused them was of limited value and couldn’t salvage the case against his client because the alleged offending was different and the child victims were older, he told the court.
‘You can’t fill the unfillable void of the prosecution’s case,’ Percy said.
‘The height of it is, he may have had an interest in little girls.’
Mrs Cable was a credible, reliable and remarkable witness, who had provided clarity about the events of the past, he said.
A civil trial previously found Cable abused a different girl over five years from 1968 when she was aged 12
‘The telling blow in this case was Helen Cable’s evidence,’ Mr Percy said.
‘The prosecution case simply can’t survive.’
Prosecutor Kim Jennings argued Cable’s offending was brazen.
She asked Judge Michael Bowden for latitude over the woman’s inability to accurately identify the location where Cable allegedly abused her.
‘She is remembering back 60 years and remembering as a small child,’ she said.
‘This is a child who had a pretty traumatic start to life.
‘What stands out is the sexual abuse, not the details of where it happened.’
Mrs Cable had not been truthful while giving evidence and had tried to minimise Cable and her family’s links to the child in a bid to protect her husband, Ms Jennings said.
Judge Michael Bowden reserved his verdict until a date no later than April 17 (Cable is pictured right, outside the Perth Magistrates Court)
The complainant had recalled intimate details about the abuse she had endured and should be believed, she said.
She didn’t complain at the time because Cable told her she would not be believed because he was Barry Cable, Ms Jennings said.
‘Barry Cable thought he was invincible,’ she said. ‘He had a very successful football career, and he was quite famous in the community.’
Cable has denied five counts of indecent dealing with a girl aged under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13 between December 31, 1966 and December 31, 1969.
A civil trial previously found Cable abused a different girl over five years from 1968 when she was aged 12.
The civil trial judge said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children.
Cable denied the abuse.
He was later stripped of his Australian Football Hall of Fame honours following an illustrious playing career in the 1960s and ’70s for Perth and East Perth in the WAFL and North Melbourne in the VFL, going on to coach in both leagues.
Judge Bowden reserved his verdict until a date no later than April 17.
