Victim Lauren Boyle Hanney and former Cork City manager Collins said his jail sentence ‘should have been longer’
18:54, 21 Nov 2025Updated 19:17, 21 Nov 2025
Roddy Collins with wife Caroline and daughter Lauren Boyle Hanney pictured arriving at court(Image: Collins )
The daughter of former Cork City manager Roddy Collins said the jail sentence for the man who attacked her: “should have been longer.” On Thursday, a judge jailed Ronaldo Lupo for two years and nine months for a brutal attack on two women in 2023.
The thug attacked Lauren Boyle Hanney, the daughter of Roddy Collins, and her friend Abby Tierney when the two women were socialising in Clonee in December 2023.
“I fully believed I was going to die,” Lauren Boyle Hanney, 24 said after the sentencing of her attacker. Ronaldo Lupo was sent to jail by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday. The former League of Ireland manager’s daughter shared shocking images of her bruised and blood face taken after the assault.
Lauren Boyle Hanney’s injuries after being attacked(Image: Lauren Boyle Hanney)
Ms Boyle Hanney is the daughter of Roddy Collins, a current soccer pundit and former League of Ireland manager. He was the appointed manager for Cork City FC in 2009. However, Collins did not oversee a single competitive game before Cork City was wound up in 2010 and he was not reappointed.
Although Ronaldo Lupo admitted attacking Ms Boyle Hanney and her friend Abby Tierney, he will walk free from prison in May 2027. He is entitled to standard 25 per cent remission and his sentence was backdated to February of this year when he went into custody, so he has just 18 months left to serve, the Irish Mirror explains.
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Lupo, 24, with an address at Rusheeney Avenue in Clonsilla, Dublin 15, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault causing harm to Ms Boyle Hanney and Ms Tierney. He has 52 previous convictions including three for assault causing harm and over 40 for road traffic offences. The offences happened in Clonee in December 2023 when the women were socialising with Lupo’s girlfriend in Ms Tierney’s home.
Detective Garda John Hayes of Blanchardstown Garda Station told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday that the two victims were with the girlfriend at Ms Tierney’s home when Lupo arrived at around 8.30pm. He told the court that Lupo began drinking heavily and started a heated argument with his girlfriend in the kitchen.
The court heard Lupo then grabbed a spaghetti jar and Ms Boyle Hanney hit him as she believed he was going to smash it across the girlfriend’s head. But the court heard Lupo then launched a vicious attack on Ms Boyle Hanney, including punching her 20 times.
Ronaldo Lupo, 24, attacked Ms Boyle Hanney and her friend Abby Tierney(Image: Irish Mirror)
The court heard Ms Tierney then tried to intervene but Lupo punched her and knocked her unconscious. The victims managed to get away. They were scared and believed Lupo was going to kill them. Ms Boyle Hanney managed to contact the gardai then got a male neighbour to come to the house and help in getting Lupo outside.
Lupo was arrested shortly afterwards. He was quite intoxicated and his detention was suspended as he was initially unfit for interview. Both injured parties required medical attention that night. Photos of their injuries were handed to the court. Ms Boyle Hanney’s nose was swollen and she suffered injuries to her hands. Ms Tierney sustained a swollen jaw, bruising to her face and arms and injuries to her hands.
Det Gda Hayes agreed with Oisin Clarke BL, defending, that the majority of Lupo’s previous convictions are in the District Court. It was accepted that there had been disagreements between Lupo and his partner that night, with Lupo becoming upset and crying in the hall at one point.
The witness agreed that Ms Boyle Hanney struck Lupo, intervening in an argument between him and his partner. It was further accepted that when gardai arrived Lupo had a cut on his forehead and apologised.
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Reading her victim impact statement, Ms Tierney said that she felt “shock, violated, powerless, confused” and very vulnerable in the moment of the assault. She said she trusted Lupo as her friend’s partner and let him into her home as “someone I believed I could trust”.
She said she has developed trust issues and finds certain situations involving alcohol more challenging. She said the assault made her feel “small, scared and humiliated”. Ms Tierney said she has suffered with flashbacks, guilt and self-blame, though she knows she is not to blame. She said she hopes her voice can be heard and that what she has been through is acknowledged and never normalised.
In her victim impact statement, Ms Boyle Hanney said she was “assaulted viciously” and a lot was taken from her, including her trust in others and sense of security. She said she is more nervous around people and second guesses their intentions. She said the incident had changed her perspective and made her more fearful.
She said she now gets nightmares. She said the “scars that remain from having to protect myself from a vicious assault” are a “constant reminder”. “What should have been a happy night of celebration and preparation for a new year ended in the most distressing way,” she stated.
Mr Clarke said his client is apologetic, that his actions were not premeditated and there was no excuse for his reaction. He said these are “horrific offences”, noting that it is “abhorrent” when a man strikes a woman and something that will concern the court. Counsel submitted to the court that his client did not instigate the incident, but reacted inappropriately and excessively. He said Lupo was quite intoxicated and was “not in his right mind” at the time.
Mr Clarke said his client has been diagnosed with several health issues. Medical reports, letters of apology and a letter from Lupo’s partner were handed to the court. He is doing well in custody and attending an anger management course. Mr Clarke said his client is aware “he is the cause of his own misfortune” and is upset at the impact on his actions.
Judge Martin Nolan said Lupo attacked both victims “quite savagely”, that both sustained injuries and were “terrified for good reason”. He said Lupo “had at that time a problem with self control, a very bad problem”. “It seems he couldn’t control himself on the night and inflicted violence on the unfortunate victims,” he said.
The judge noted Lupo has a history of similar offending. “Hopefully in time he will learn to control himself and his temper because at that point, and on other occasions, he displayed a total lack of control”.
The judge said he considered the mitigation, including the guilty pleas, expressions of remorse and Lupo’s medical issues. He imposed a sentence of two years and nine months backdated to February 1 last, when Lupo went into custody.
Ms Boyle Hanney said she thought Lupo was going to kill her during the attack. She told the Irish Mirror: “I fully believed I was going to die. He looked at us all and said you are all going to die tonight. There was such anger, I’ll never forget it in his eyes. He was going for weapons and I genuinely did, I thought someone was going to pass away that night. It was scary. It was really, really scary.”
She said: “I feel he should have gotten more. I just hope to get the message out that it’s never okay for men to hit women – stand up and speak up. I just hope it doesn’t happen to any other young woman again. A bit on edge that he is getting out in 18 months. What if it comes back to bite? Retaliation…it’s not nice to think about.
“I lost a year of my life. My self confidence, my security. My sense of self. It took me a long time to process what happened to me. It wasn’t easy. I am still trying to get over it. I tense up even speaking about it. It was hard seeing him again in the courtroom. I could feel my body tensing up. It wasn’t easy. I am even tearing up, shaking about it speaking about it now.”
Mr Collins also told us he was unhappy with the sentence. He said: “We were hoping for a longer sentence because Lauren has said to me multiple times, ‘Da if he gets a small sentence or a suspended sentence or whatever he gets, will he come after me when he gets out?’
“But to get a sentence like that, for me it’s a joke. The justice system is a joke in situations like this. The record that he had in the court previous to that was read out – we know what happened in the room. I’m very disappointed.”
After he left Cork City FC in 2010, Collins moved on to Monaghan United in 2011. Cork City FC was restored in the summer of 2010 after a fan trust FORAS bought the rights to the name. The trust operated Cork’s League of Ireland side until 2022 when the team was bought by Dermot Usher.