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‘I was surplus to requirements’: Why the PM’s top expert Dennis Richardson quit antisemitism royal commission

RICHARD FERGUSON - 12 March 2026

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Former spy boss Dennis Richardson has abruptly quit the antisemitism royal commission over concerns his authority and ability to make recommendations ­relating to intelligence and law enforcement in the wake of the Bondi massacre had been ­diminished under the structure of the inquiry.

“Probably there wasn’t enough discussion right at the beginning about the precise way things would work. And ultimately, I came to the conclusion that I was surplus to requirements,” he told Radio National on Thursday morning.

In a crisis for the royal commission and the federal government, Mr Richardson shocked Jewish leaders, the families of massacre victims and the security community on Wednesday night with his decision to quit a role for which Anthony Albanese said he was the best person in the country.

The former ASIO director-general’s decision to pull the pin followed concerns over the structure of the royal commission, after the government folded the veteran bureaucrat’s examination of potential failings by security agencies into royal commissioner and ex-High Court justice Virginia Bell’s inquiry.

The Australian understands that Mr Richardson believed there were impediments preventing him from maximising the type of investigation he felt was essential into the intelligence and law-­enforcement situation surrounding the Bondi massacre.

It is understood there had been a failed integration of Mr Richardson’s investigation into intelligence and law enforcement with the heavily legal structure of a royal commission. The effort to bring the two processes together did not work.

While Mr Richardson came to the view he was “surplus to requirements”, he said Australians could still have total confidence in Virginia Bell’s investigation.

“The report which I had been doing prior to the royal commission being formed was folded into the royal commission and as soon as it became folded into the royal commission a particular legal framework was put around it. So the interim report that will now be done by the royal commission will be a very different document to the one that I would have done,” he said.

Mr Richardson said he thought having a standalone investigation independent of the royal commission would have ameliorated his concerns, but he had come to a view that what the government was paying him for was not consistent with the work.

“Look, the royal commission will go on and I think everyone can have total confidence in the royal commission. Virginia Bell is one of the finest jurists in this country. She has a very fine legal team around her and she has very fine people helping her mostly,” he said.

Mr Richardson said he was being paid $5500 a day to effectively be a research officer and claimed it would have been inappropriate to raise concerns about his role with the government.

In interviews with ABC radio in Canberra and Sydney, Mr Richardson said he felt that he was being “grossly overpaid” for the work required of him as part of the royal commission.

“I was being paid very well, so the question about payment really goes to the fact that, quite frankly, I was being well overpaid for what I was effectively doing,” he said.

“Different people would have different perspectives on what I’m about to say. I think it would be challenged by others. But in my own view, when you stripped everything down, I was essentially being employed as a research officer and to lead a team of researchers.

“It would be quite wrong to suggest that a royal commission is bogged down in legalese that is unnecessary. But it does take a certain amount of time, and at the end of the day, to be very blunt, I was being way overpaid for what I was doing.”

Mr Richardson made the decision himself. The Albanese government played no role in the events leading to Mr Richardson’s resignation since the royal commission under the law is independent from the executive government.

The resignation will inevitably become a major embarrassment for the Prime Minister and his government. Mr Richardson’s credentials in security and intelligence gave him special authority in this area and the fact he felt the current structure was unsuitable and that his own role was unsatisfactory will raise serious problems for both Mr Albanese and Ms Bell.

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This will be compounded as it is understood that the interim report of the royal commission due by April 30 will fail to meet expectations – it is unlikely to involve substantial findings and recommendations in relation to intelligence and law enforcement.

This means it will not meet the timetable set out in Mr Richardson’s initial brief before the royal commission was established. Such a failure to provide strong recommendations reasonably quickly after Bondi will provoke criticism of the royal commission and of the Albanese government.

Opposition reaction

Angus Taylor said Mr Richardson’s resignation raises serious questions for the Prime Minister, demanding Mr Albanese detail how he plans to handle the issue.

“This is an incredibly important initiative, which we pushed hard for, and we were pleased to see it go into place. But to see one of our most respected public servants, Dennis Richardson, a former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Defense, head of ASIO, to see him step down from that role in the Royal Commission raises many questions,” the Opposition Leader said.

“He needs to explain why Dennis Richardson has stepped down and what he is going to do about it. We need to see an effective royal commission that explains to Australians what happened, and most importantly, explains to Australians how the government is going to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Coalition frontbenchers also blasted the government over Mr Richardson’s decision to step away from the antisemitism royal commission, calling on Mr Albanese to intervene.

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said Mr Richardson’s decision was a “devastating indictment” on the government’s approach to structuring the inquiry, claiming his departure undermined the credibility of the entire investigation.

“It was the Prime Minister, as you know, who told Australians that Dennis Richardson was the best qualified person in our country to examine the intelligence and security failures surrounding the Bondi massacre. So, how does someone that the Prime Minister himself said was indispensable suddenly become surplus to requirements,” Senator Cash told Radio National.

“I think the government never wanted this Royal Commission, and it has structured it so badly, that Dennis Richardson, in his own words, has now effectively said he’s been pushed aside.”

“How will the Prime Minister reassure Australians that the Royal Commission still has the independence, the expertise, and more particularly, the scope to get to the bottom of what happened?”

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson also weighed in to Mr Richardson’s resignation, declaring a “massive shadow” had been cast over the investigation while calling for the Prime Minister to convince the former ASIO boss to reverse his decision.

“Dennis Richardson was the best qualified person in Australia to conduct this inquiry, and now he has resigned. This is a disaster for the credibility of the royal commission and ultimately its findings and recommendations,” he told Sky News.

“The Prime Minister needs to step in today and fix this. He needs to call Dennis Richardson and ask him to continue to support the Royal Commission, and he needs to call the Royal Commissioner to ask her to accommodate Dennis Richardson. Otherwise, this will be yet another betrayal of the Jewish community.”

“I have grave concerns that it will not be a success if Dennis Richardson is not involved.”

The Australian understands that Mr Richardson has argued that recommendations concerning security issues, notably the intelligence and law-enforcement findings must be provided to government as soon as they are finished and should not be withheld until the final report in December 2026.

The argument these should be provided to the executive government as soon as finalised will constitute powerful pressure on the royal commission – as it goes to the security of the Australian people and the Jewish community.

In a late-night statement on Wednesday announcing the resignation, Ms Bell did not offer any reason why Mr Richardson had quit but claimed his interim findings on intelligence failures were well under way and on track.

“As I noted at the commission’s initial hearing, Mr Richardson was uniquely well-placed to advise on the material to be sought from our intelligence and security agencies in order to assess the effectiveness of their preparedness for, and response to, a terrorist attack,” the royal commissioner said on Wednesday night.

“Thanks to Mr Richardson and the senior members of his team, Tony Sheehan, the former ­commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator and deputy ­director-general of ASIO, and Peter Baxter, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Defence and director-general of ­AusAID, work on the interim report is well advanced.”

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Her Wednesday statement came a month after Ms Bell ­revealed Mr Richardson’s probe had been hampered by early ­delays after it was folded in to the royal commission, prompting ­security agencies to seek legal ­advice “to consider questions of public interest immunity, statutory nondisclosure provisions and legal professional privilege”.

Former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty, who questioned at the time why Mr Richardson had not been given the powers of a royal commissioner, said on Wednesday night the process was “flawed from the beginning”.

“The security agencies were conflicted because there was a successful terrorist attack, and his inquiry relied on the co-operation of the agencies,” Mr Keelty told The Australian. “The Richardson review needed to have coercive powers if it was to be effective. Folding it into the royal commission was an afterthought, and it was an afterthought based upon pressure placed on the government to fold and finally agree to have a royal commission.”

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg – who led the campaign for a royal commission – and other Jewish leaders had previously expressed concerns over the inquiry’s structure.

Ms Bell said Mr Sheehan and Mr Baxter would stay with the royal commission.

A former US ambassador, ASIO boss and head of both the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments, Mr Richardson was put in charge of an initial review into security and federal law-­enforcement agencies in the early days after Australia’s worst terror attack in which 15 innocent people died, most of them Jews attending a Hanukkah festival.

After the Prime Minister bowed to massive grassroots pressure for a wider royal commission into the two years of anti-Jewish hatred that led to the killings, Mr Richardson’s review was brought into the royal commission.

Jenny Roytur, the niece of Bondi victim Boris Tetleroyd, said the announcement of Mr Richardson’s departure had left her with “serious concern” about the inquiry she spent weeks advocating for, amid her grieving.

“Richardson brought decades of national security experience and held broad respect across the political spectrum, as well as significant trust within the Jewish community and the wider Australian public,” she said. “When someone of his stature agrees to support an inquiry of this importance, people reasonably expect stability and continuity.”

Mr Albanese did not comment on Mr Richardson’s resignation, but as early as late February said nobody was better placed than him to examine if ASIO and the federal police failed to prevent the massacre.

“We have ensured that there will be a proper review by the person who is best placed of any Australian to do it in Dennis Richardson,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on February 22.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland offered no further details on the reason for Mr Richardson’s decision.

“The government thanks Mr Richardson for his efforts to date,” Ms Rowland said.

“The government will continue to support the royal commission to deliver its important work, including the delivery of the Interim Report by 30 April.

“The royal commission, which is independent of government, will provide further updates in due course.”

Liberal frontbencher and the Coalition’s most senior Jewish MP Julian Leeser said the royal commission process was “in tatters”.

“This work is so important. What agencies know and whether should they have been on top of the (Bondi killer) given he was on a list and then off list, there are a lot of questions on if is that was a failure,” Mr Leeser said.

He questioned whether the short timeframe Mr Richardson was given to report on security agencies was one reason for the resignation, or if powers given Mr Richardson in his investigation, or lack thereof, were behind the move.

“The idea the commission is only getting going now and has to report by end of next month on security issues, the timing is unreasonable,” Mr Leeser said.

“So I wonder if timing is a factor. Though it doesn’t seem something that you would throw toys out of cot for.

“Maybe he was frustrated with powers he’s been given.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/dennis-richardson-quits-antisemitism-royal-commission/news-story/223480e2b483fff8bb9314cab32e8a96

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9AUjsFlOPY

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>>24371525

Intelligence agencies say they’ll struggle to give full evidence to Bondi royal commission; Dennis Richardson ‘felt like the fifth wheel’

NOAH YIM - 12 March 2026

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Intelligence agencies say they might not be able to produce full evidence to the antisemitism royal commission and one agency has already had to redact documents provided because of legislative hurdles, as former spy boss Dennis Richardson abruptly quit the investigation saying he was “surplus to requirements”.

Australia’s financial intelligence agency could not guarantee it could provide full information to the royal commission and that instead, its chief executive was the final decision maker on whether or not to share information.

The Australian Federal Police also said that it had already had to redact some material from documents provided to the royal commission due to legislative hurdles and had been “navigating challenges associated with producing material”.

But the agency said the government’s new legislation would “provide the necessary clarity” to ensure it can provide intelligence containing telecommunications data.

This comes despite the fact Labor said its bill, aimed at protecting the provision of information to the royal commission, would “ensure secrecy provisions are not a reasonable excuse not to comply with an order to produce information to a royal commission”.

On Thursday Mr Richardson said he “felt like the fifth wheel” in the antisemitism royal commission, confirming he had been thinking about resigning for a “couple of weeks” and that his exit from the Bondi massacre judicial inquiry was an “embarrassment”.

After Anthony Albanese touted Mr Richardson as one of the most eminently qualified people to investigate security failures related to the Bondi massacre, the former ASIO boss said the structure of the royal commission meant he was not needed and was he essentially left as “a research officer”.

“Very simply, I felt I was the fifth wheel. It’s a very legally driven process, the way it’s structured and the way it proceeds as such, that means there is not much need for someone like myself,” he told Sky News on Thursday.

“The onus was on Virginia Bell and me to sit down and have a hard headed discussion on day one. And, while we did have lots of discussions, I think we both took things forward based upon different assumptions.”

“But I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I first raised the possibility, with the commissioner a couple of weeks ago … It continued to become clear to me, that the value that I could provide was becoming more limited.”

His resignation has sent shockwaves through the Jewish community and security leaders, with a former Amy chief warning it will undermine the royal commission’s findings and an ex-federal police boss saying the commission was running on two different courses.

A month ago, royal commissioner Virginia Bell also ­revealed Mr Richardson’s probe had been hampered by early ­delays after it was folded in to the royal commission, prompting ­security agencies to seek legal ­advice “to consider questions of public interest immunity, statutory nondisclosure provisions and legal professional privilege”.

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In submissions to parliament, AUSTRAC said information provided by foreign counterparts is subject to secrecy provisions and would have to “seek permission for further disclosure” or face potential sanctions.

“Information provided by a foreign financial intelligence unit … is subject to secrecy provisions,” it said.

“In considering further disclosure, AUSTRAC must have regard to the principles agreed to by the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and the exchange instrument in place between AUSTRAC and the foreign (financial intelligence unit) that disclosed the information to AUSTRAC.

“These arrangements include a requirement to seek permission for further disclosure, and possible sanctions under the Egmont Group for noncompliance.

“The decision as to whether to disclose intelligence with the royal commission lies with the AUSTRAC CEO.

“AUSTRAC’s approach is to support the royal commission in fulfilling its functions and to provide all relevant information and assistance, unless there is any valid legal reason that prevents us from doing so.”

The agency said the bill would “provide clarity” about how the royal commission can use information from AUSTRAC and would give AUSTRAC the ability to rely on those arrangements to engage with the royal commission, but maintains it has international obligations.

The Australian Federal Police told a parliamentary inquiry that it had been “navigating challenges associated with producing material obtained under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 and the Surveillance Devices Act 2004”.

“Material that is the subject of any statutory prohibitions has been redacted from the documents provided (to the royal commission) to date,” the AFP said.

It said Labor’s legislation would “address the challenges currently preventing disclosure” and says it will not withhold information from the royal commission.

And the Australian Criminal Intelligence Organisation also flagged potential challenges in providing all available information to the antisemitism royal commission.

“The ACIC intends to engage with the Royal Commission and provide information within all relevant legislative frameworks, this may include consideration of the frameworks and purposes for which a foreign partner has shared certain information with the agency to determine if it can be shared,” it said.

And the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, says that while it is providing the royal commission “full access to ASIO”, the arrangement makes sure that “ASIO can request removal or revision of the information, apply for non-publication directions, or make a public interest immunity claim”.

Labor has already faced criticism over the potential power of intelligence agencies to withhold information from the royal commission.

Greens senator David Shoebridge has previously claimed Labor’s bill “give the heads of the security agencies a veto power over what information can be shared and how it can be used”.

“If there is no agreement between the royal commission and the agency heads, then there is no protection for witnesses,” he said earlier this month.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland at the time said Senator Shoebridge was being misleading.

“The government’s legislation is crucial to ensuring the royal commission can complete its important work, including the delivery of an interim report by 30 April,” she said.

“Suggestions that the bill provides a veto power for security agencies are misleading and irresponsible.

“The bill would ensure secrecy provisions are not a reasonable excuse not to comply with an order to produce information to a royal commission.”

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Despite abruptly resigning from the investigation, Mr Richardson said Australians should have full confidence that the royal commission would reach the same conclusion had he been involved – just through a different process.

“I would be amazed if there was any significant difference. But they will get there through a different route and through a different process. And that route and that process, really doesn’t need me. I mean, I could have stayed around, but, for what purpose,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday would not go into the reasons for Mr Richardson’s exit, but noted he had put faith in Ms Bell and the commission.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said Mr Richardson’s resignation from the antisemitism royal commission raises serious questions for the Prime Minister, demanding Mr Albanese detail how he plans to handle the issue.

Former Attorney-General George Brandis said the government could have avoided Dennis Richardson’s decision to quit the Bondi royal commission by making him a full royal commissioner from the start.

“I have never understood why, when the royal commission was established, Dennis Richardson was not made a joint royal commissioner, which may have obviated the problem,” Mr Brandis said.

“Royal commissions often involve more than one royal commissioner and given Justice Bell had the eminence but not the professional experience in the intelligence and security field, it would have seemed very logical to me when the royal commission was stood up, for Dennis Richardson to be made jointly, with her, a co-royal commissioner.

“The royal commissioner doesn’t of course have to be a lawyer.”

Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said Mr Richardson’s decision to quit the Bondi massacre royal commission was a predictable development given the way the inquiry was set up by the government.

“I think this goes back to the genesis of how the royal commission was agreed to by the government. It thought it could deal with Bondi by having a politically expedient review done by Dennis,” Mr Keelty said.

“The cleverness of the government to try and put a line between the royal commission and Richardson review has now unfolded.”

He said when the government announced the royal commission and Mr Richardson’s inquiry was folded into it, there were inquiries “running on two different courses”.

“It’s the victims who should be on the front page, not the politicians.”

Former chief of army Peter Leahy said Mr Richardson’s departure had the potential to undermine the royal commission’s findings.

“It’s a shame that he has resigned. He is a very eminent and knowledgeable man. And I don’t think we will get as comprehensive a result with him having resigned,” Mr Leahy said.

“The inclusion of his inquiry, which was really quite a discreet part of the royal commission, should have remained separate.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/dennis-richardson-felt-like-the-fifth-wheel-at-the-antisemitism-royal-commission/news-story/d4830ba3fed35c8cbe2123e54f109b16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57nAyxvYgCg

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>>24371525

Clash over security report led to sudden resignation from royal commission

Paul Sakkal and Matthew Knott - March 12, 2026

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A clash over the urgency of fixing the security gaps that led to the Bondi massacre prompted the resignation that has plunged the royal commission into disarray.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was thrust into the spotlight on Wednesday night when former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson quit his role as a special adviser to Commissioner Virginia Bell, saying he felt surplus to requirements.

The former spy boss and US ambassador had finished interviewing heads of the intelligence agencies in mid-January, and was focused on delivering a concrete set of recommendations about intelligence and policing failures in the commission’s interim report, due in April.

But sources with knowledge of the commission’s workings said Richardson felt his role became untenable when Bell decided the interim report would not contain substantive recommendations or findings.

Bell, according to the sources not permitted to speak about the commission publicly, wanted the interim report to leave open key questions for “further exploration”, reserving key recommendations for the final report in December.

Richardson was willing to delay the interim report to allow time for hearings to inform more substantial findings about intelligence failures.

But Bell, who prides herself on meeting deadlines, did not seek a time extension from the government.

According to sources familiar with the disagreement, Richardson believed delaying substantial recommendations on security until December would mean missing the opportunity to implement lessons from the worst terror attack in Australian history. He also feared any security recommendations would be lost in the other findings on antisemitism.

Richardson, who was being paid $5500 per day, said his resignation was “an embarrassment all around” but insisted the credibility of Bell’s royal commission remained intact.

“I didn’t necessarily see my last job of this kind being more of a highly paid researcher,” Richardson told reporters in Canberra on Thursday before conducting a round of media interviews. “I saw my job as being a little bit more than that.”

“It’s just that it’s now reached a point where I think my value-add is pretty limited.”

Sources familiar with the relationship between Bell and Richardson said they had “different views of the world” that proved irreconcilable despite their respect for each other.

“The cultural and philosophical differences were too great” between the former High Court justice and the security establishment figure, one source said.

Richardson has told confidantes he concluded he was the “odd one out” in the relationship and that he should step aside so Bell could complete the work as she saw fit.

Richardson had been contracted until May, with an option for extension.

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Bell revealed in her opening address last month that delays in obtaining material from key agencies made it unlikely “will be in a position to adduce evidence concerning the adequacy of the security arrangements for the Hanukkah event and aspects of the effectiveness of the work of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the deadline for the production of the interim report”.

“That evidence may end up being led after the interim report is delivered and in that case, it will form part of the final report,” she said.

Bell added that Richardson was “uniquely well-placed to advise on the material that the commission should seek from our intelligence and security agencies in order to test the effectiveness of our preparedness for a terrorist attack.“

Bell declined to comment on Richardson’s public remarks after he resigned.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was initially reluctant to call a federal royal commission, instead tapping Richardson to conduct a standalone review into intelligence agencies.

After a weeks-long campaign for a royal commission led by the families of Bondi victims, the prime minister finally agreed, announcing the federal probe into antisemitism on January 9.

The view inside the government is that the Richardson blowup proves that Albanese was right to prefer a Richardson-led review in which the former spy had full autonomy.

Leading Jewish figures, including former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, made no public comments about Richardson’s resignation, which took the community by surprise.

The Jewish community is intent on retaining public trust for such a critical inquiry.

The Coalition, which pushed for a royal commission over summer as Albanese’s personal polling numbers took a hit, did not ask any questions about Richardson in Question Time. Albanese has not yet commented on the matter.

Frontbenchers James Paterson, Andrew Hastie and Michaelia Cash said the resignation was a disaster.

Paterson called Richardson’s resignation “a disaster for the royal commission, for its credibility, ultimately for its findings and recommendations”.

Hastie said: “We need to have a talk about militant political Islam, we need to talk about the role that our intelligence agencies, our law enforcement agencies, played in all of this.”

Cash, the shadow attorney-general, said the Australians would lose confidence in the royal commission due to Richardson stepping aside.

“You need to question whether the royal commission’s ability to investigate the intelligence and anti-terror dimensions of this tragedy have been seriously undermined,” she said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/clash-over-security-report-led-to-sudden-resignation-from-royal-commission-20260312-p5o9xq.html

>>24363966

Wife of Australian footballer Barry Cable takes stand in his child sex abuse trial

David Weber - 12 March 2026

WARNING: This story contains details about alleged sexual assault some readers may find distressing.

The wife of Barry Cable, the former footballer on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a child from an orphanage in the early stages of his illustrious career, has testified in defence of her famous husband.

Mr Cable, who was once inducted into the Australian Football League Hall of Fame, is on trial in Perth accused of sexually abusing a girl aged under 13 in the late 1960s.

The WA District Court has heard the girl was abused at Mr Cable's home, where she stayed for some weeks, after he and his wife Helen picked her up from an orphanage.

The woman, now in her 60s, testified that Mr Cable would come into her room when Helen was asleep and abuse her.

But Mrs Cable, who's been married to the 82-year-old since 1965, told the court the girl had never stayed with them in any of the suburban Perth homes they lived in before Mr Cable went to play for North Melbourne — the club where he later won two premierships.

Mrs Cable also said she had not heard of the orphanage where the girl was staying until recently, and she and her husband had never visited there.

She also said Mr Cable never spent that much time alone at their home.

"Can't imagine it ever happened," she said.

Girl 'never' stayed at Cable home

Under questioning from Prosecutor Kim Jennings, Mrs Cable repeatedly denied the girl had stayed with them.

Ms Jennings showed Mrs Cable documents from the early 1970s that suggested the girl had stayed with the Cables before, and had been welcome to stay with them on weekends.

"Never happened," Mrs Cable said.

"I wasn't well at the time."

Earlier on Thursday, a relative of the alleged victim told the court the girl had confided in her decades ago that Mr Cable "molested her".

She said the alleged victim told her Barry Cable "touched her and made her do stuff to him, sexually".

The court has heard the alleged victim was between the age of 9 and 10 when she stayed at the family home where Mr Cable forced her to perform sexual acts on him.

On Tuesday, she testified Mr Cable told her if she told anyone, "they wouldn't believe me because he was Barry Cable".

She denied claims from Mr Cable's lawyer that she only came forward to police about the abuse because she "wanted to cash in".

Damages were awarded to another woman in 2023 after a civil case involving Mr Cable.

Mr Cable was considered a champion footballer, winning three WAFL premierships with Perth in the 1960s.

He was captain-coach of the East Perth team that won the premiership in 1978.

He also won three Sandover Medals for being the WAFL's best and fairest player.

After moving to Victoria in the 1970s, he won two VFL premierships with North Melbourne, in 1975 and 1977, and returned to coach the side in the 1980s.

Barry Cable did not take the stand to testify in his own defence, and the case is expected to hear closing arguments on Friday.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-12/wife-of-barry-cable-takes-stand-in-child-sex-abuse-trial/106447342

>>24363966

>>24371560

‘He’d laugh’: Disgraced football great Barry Cable accused of abusing girls in spa

Aaron Bunch - March 11, 2026

Disgraced football legend Barry Cable fondled two young girls in a backyard spa and exposed himself in front of other children, a court has been told.

The 82-year-old former Australian rules player is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations relating to a girl aged about eight in a criminal trial in Perth.

He allegedly abused the girl at his family home in the late 1960s when she was staying with Cable and his wife Helen for about a month.

The abuse allegedly involved intimate physical contact and attempted penetrative sex on multiple occasions when Cable’s wife was asleep.

A different woman told the court on Wednesday that Cable touched her breasts and pulled his erect penis from his bathers in a spa in Melbourne in the early 1980s when she was about 10 years old.

“He would always say, ‘Oh, come on girls, give me a cuddle’,” she told the judge-only trial in the WA District Court.

“When he got really confident, he actually pulled my bathers to the side [when he had] an erect penis.”

The former North Melbourne player also allegedly put the girl on his knee and tried to penetrate her with his penis, the woman said.

The incidents allegedly involved one other child.

“Every time we were in the spa, it would happen,” she said.

“We would say … ‘Barry, stop it’ and he would laugh.”

Defence lawyer Tom Percy KC accused the woman of making up the allegations and suggested the incident never happened.

“It certainly did … who would want to go through this?” she replied.

The woman’s childhood friend also testified about her alleged interactions with Cable at a spa when she was about 12.

“I was sitting on his knee and I remember him pulling his bathers aside, and I saw his penis,” she said.

The woman said she remembered feeling Cable’s penis against her bottom.

“I got off [his lap], it was really uncomfortable,” she said.

“Then he was, like, fondling my breasts.”

Other young children, including the first witness, were in the spa when the incident happened, the woman said.

Percy repeatedly accused the woman of exaggerating the allegations and suggested she was motivated by financial gain.

“I’ve told you my truth and what happened, and I’m under oath,” she said.

The complainant in the criminal trial alleges Cable’s abuse continued on a near-daily basis while she stayed at his home as a child.

He 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.

Percy accused the woman of making up the allegations after she learned his client had been found guilty of similar allegations during a civil trial in 2023.

She forcefully denied trying to “cash in” during her evidence on Tuesday.

The civil trial found Cable abused another girl over five years from 1968, when she was aged 12. The woman was awarded $818,700 in damages.

The judge in that trial said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children. Cable denied the abuse.

He had 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.

The criminal trial continues.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://archive.md/QQmMD