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The Western Australian Institute of Sport could become the first to formally strip former football star Barry Cable of his honours just days after a District Court judge found he sexually abused a girl while at the height of his coveted career.
WAtoday understands the WAIS Hall of Champions’ committee met on Thursday to decide whether to keep Cable in the Hall of Champions Legends list.
While the committee is remaining tight-lipped about the outcome, the writing may already be on the wall for Cable, with his profile having disappeared from the institute’s website.
A West Australian court found AFL legend Barry Cable sexually abused a girl for years from when she was 12.Credit: Composite
The move comes just days after Cable was ordered to pay $818,700 in damages after Judge Mark Herron found he abused a girl over a six-year period between the 1960s and 1970s, in a series of attacks that began when she was barely a teen.
The judgment was scathing of Cable, accusing him of using his public status to abuse the trust of those around him and engage in “egregious” predatory behaviour that caused the woman ongoing psychological harm.
Barry Cable’s appeared on the website just weeks ago, but has been taken down.Credit: WAIS
The 79-year-old has vehemently denied the allegations and declined to appear after multiple attempts to thwart the lawsuit and have his name suppressed.
Criminal charges against Cable have never been laid.
Other sporting organisations which have also bestowed Cable with the game’s highest honours over the past four decades may well follow suit.
The AFL Commission is set to meet this week to decide whether Cable should remain an official Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
It comes after The Age revealed the AFL was mulling rule changes to allow the league to revoke the membership of those convicted of offences and conduct that brought the game into disrepute.
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s board is also expected to convene a meeting to decide on whether Cable should retain his position, one he has held since 1986.
A plaque dedicated to Cable is also understood to have been removed from Hillarys Boat Harbour in Perth’s north.
Organisations who had helped decorate Cable were implored to act by the firm spearheading the legal action against him, with Rightside Legal partner Michael Magazanik calling for the footballer to be stripped of his honours immediately and expel him from the game’s hall of fame.
More to come.
With Jake Niall
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