The wife of former AFL footballer Barry Cable has denied a young girl ever stayed at their home, despite departmental records suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n
Helen Cable was called to give evidence in her husband\u2019s trial as he fights five counts of indecent dealing with a girl aged under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13.<\/p>\n
A woman accused Mr Cable of sexually abusing her when she was about eight-years-old at a home where he lived with his wife in Perth\u2019s southeast during the 1960s.<\/p>\n
The alleged victim told the court Cable rubbed vaseline on her genitalia and tried to have sex with her while his wife was asleep in the home.<\/p>\n
Mrs Cable denied the girl was ever at their home when pressed by State Prosecutor Kim Jennings.<\/p>\n
When shown departmental records suggesting Mr and Mrs Cable took the girl for a period of time and another that said arrangements had been made for the girl to stay with them on weekends and school holidays, Mrs Cable denied the suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, never happened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When asked how often Mr Cable was home alone, Mrs Cable told the court her husband was rarely home alone because she rarely left the house without him.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery rare because I\u2019m not an outdoor person, I like to be at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurely there were times when you went out with Mr Cable?\u201d Ms Jennings asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have been at work. I cannot remember not being home when he was home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Under re-examination, defence lawyer Gerard Yin asked Mrs Cable what she thought was meant in the departmental documents.<\/p>\n
Mrs Cable said she had no idea, but her husband had tried to help the girl\u2019s mother, and there had been an emergency at some point, but she does not know what was ever done about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know but (the girl) never came back to my house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She told the court she was always at home when her husband was there, explaining that was how things were done at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was how I was brought up, my mother was always home when my father came home from work, it was just the way I knew life to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you lie for your husband?\u201d Mr Yin asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mrs Cable replied.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s aunt also gave evidence at the trial saying, her niece told her Cable had molested her more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had conversations about Barry Cable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me he molested her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what molestation was.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said he touched her and made her do stuff to him. He made her do things to him sexually.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three other women provided evidence during the trial also accusing the famous footballer of sexually abusing them when they were children during the 1970s and 1980s.<\/p>\n
Mr Cable is not facing criminal charges over these claims.<\/p>\n
One woman claimed Cable abused her for more than a decade, which started when she was about 13-years-old and continued until about the time she was married.<\/p>\n
Two other women claimed Cable exposed himself to them and would try to push his genitalia into their backside when they were in a spa with him as children.<\/p>\n
Cable was one of the best players of his era and was regarded as a footy legend in Victoria and Western Australia.<\/p>\n
He played in the West Australian Football League with Perth, then North Melbourne where he was a dominant player in one of the club\u2019s most successful eras.<\/p>\n
He won two premierships with the Kangaroos in 1975 and 1977, was the club\u2019s best-and-fairest player in 1970 and was named in North Melbourne\u2019s Team of the Century.<\/p>\n
He was inducted into the Australian football Hall of Fame in 1996 and elevated to legend status in 2012.<\/p>\n
In WA, he won the WAFL\u2019s Sandover Medal three times and played in four premierships.<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to conclude on Friday.<\/p>\n