Man jailed for headbutting and punching teenage ex-girlfriend outside nightclub

Sonya McLean

A man who was captured on CCTV footage headbutting and punching his teenage ex-girlfriend after dragging her from a nightclub has been jailed for two years and three months.

Ionel Rostas (20) of no fixed abode came forward on signed pleas of guilty from the District Court. He affirmed those pleas at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that he assaulted the then 18-year-old woman, causing her harm, at the Red Cow Inn on April 21, 2025.

Detective Garda Shane Whelan confirmed that the victim did not wish to make a statement to the gardaí and the prosecution has arisen based on gardaí viewing CCTV footage of the incident.

He said gardaí were made aware that an assault had taken place. The victim got a taxi from the hotel to a hospital where she later discharged herself after she received plastic stitches above her right eyebrow.

Det Gda Whelan described what he viewed on CCTV footage. He said he identified Rostas from the footage and later arrested him, but he made no comment during the subsequent interview.

He said the victim had been in a relationship with Rostas. He had tried to get into the nightclub but was refused entry and CCTV footage shows him entering the rear door of the nightclub and, two minutes later, bringing the victim out of the club.

Det Gda Whelan said the victim appeared upset and seemed to be trying to get away from Rostas. The footage shows him holding the victim in a headlock and punching her in the head and face seven or eight times.

The victim is knocked to ground and Rostas pulls her back up and hits her again. Det Gda Whelan said about three minutes pass before Rostas headbutts the teenager again, before he punches her and walks away while she is lying on the ground.

Det Gda Whelan said he met with the victim on June 1, 2025 but she declined to make a statement.

Rostas has 30 convictions, all from the District or Children’s Court, and they include assault causing harm, criminal damage, theft, drug dealing, dangerous driving and road traffic offences.

Rostas was interviewed the following month. He was on a four-month suspended sentence for a drug offence when he carried out the assault.

Det Gda Whelan agreed with Keith Spencer BL, defending, that Rostas indicated he was accepting responsibility for the assault despite the fact that there was no witness statement.

He told Judge Orla Crowe that Rostas was effectively abandoned by his family when he was 14 years old and rendered homeless.

Judge Crowe had previously adjourned the case for sentence and ordered a report from the Probation Service.