Barry Cable: Disgraced AFL legend may not face criminal trial for historic child sex abuse charges until 2026

Disgraced AFL “legend” Barry Cable may have to wait until 2026 for his day in court over historic child sex abuse allegations and has again fronted a media pack for one of his preliminary hearings. The Shelley-based 80-year-old had to face Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday for a police committal hearing, so it could not be adjourned by consent. The matter is now ready to be sent to a Director of Public Prosecutions disclosure committal hearing and will then go to a trial listing hearing 10 weeks later. But the trial dates could well be a long way off, given District Court of WA trials are already being scheduled for spring 2025. Accompanied by lawyer Gerald Yin, Cable declined to speak with reporters as he entered court and as he emerged from court, where he only spoke to confirm his name. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of indecently dealing with a girl under 13 and two counts of carnal knowledge of a girl under 13. The case was put through to September 19 by Magistrate Elizabeth Woods. District Court Judge Mark Herron ruled in June last year, following a civil trial, that Cable had abused a woman when she was aged 12 in the late-1960s. The lead plaintiff told how she had been groomed and then abused by the former North Melbourne rover over five years of her childhood, beginning in 1968. Cable — who was stripped of his AFL legend status after the civil ruling — was charged by police in May over the alleged abuse of a different woman when she was aged nine in 1967 and 1968. Cable would have been 24 at the time, and at the height of his footballing powers — winning premierships in both those years. Cable declined to attend or defend the civil trial with a lawyer, instead sending a statement to the court maintaining his innocence and citing “inconsistencies, the surprise witnesses and my inability to defend the case.” Five women testified that they had been abused by Cable. Lawyers for the woman who won the trial told 7News in May that she had not yet seen a cent of the $818,700 in damages awarded to her from Cable — who declared bankruptcy days before the week-long proceedings began. Following the civil case ruling, Cable was stripped of his Australian Football Hall of Fame status, North Melbourne dumped him from their Hall of Fame, and his berth in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame was removed. He was also expunged from the WA Institute of Sport Hall of Champions and the WA Football Commission Hall of Fame.