07-07-2025
Cricket star appears in Co Down court to deny raping schoolboy
69-year-old Rodney Ontong entered not guilty pleas to each of the 13 offences against him
A former first class cricketer today denied committing a raft of sex offences against two children - a boy and a girl.
Standing in the dock of Downpatrick Crown Court 69-year-old Rodney Ontong entered not guilty pleas to each of the 13 offences against him, alleged to have been committed against two children on 17 July last year.
Ontong, from the Southwell Road in Bangor, faces two charges each of rape, four counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two charges each of causing a child to watch a sexual activity and child abduction as well as single counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempting to pay for sexual services.
None of the alleged facts surrounding the accusations have been opened in court but the particulars of the offences, disclose that South African Ontong allegedly raped the schoolboy when he was under 13, sexually touched and incited both complainants to engage in sexual activity and tried to pay the teenage girl for sexual services.
Following the arraignment, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC adjourned the case to 30 July to arrange disclosure and to set a date for trial.
Excusing Ontong from attending that hearing, the judge freed the retired cricketer on continuing bail.
Ontong played for both his country and captained Glamorgan County Cricket Club in the 70s and 80s before he had to retire as a result of injuries he sustained in a car accident in 1988.
