A man who sent a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you” to a woman he later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting on a Pennysylvania college campus awaits sentencing on Monday
A man who sent a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” to a woman he later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting on a Pennsylvania college campus awaits sentencing on Monday.
Ian Cleary, 32, faces a potential four- to eight-year sentence under a joint proposal for the 2013 attack on Shannon Keeler at Gettysburg College. The judge is free to accept or reject the terms.
According to Keeler, Cleary sneaked into her first-year dorm on the eve of winter break, when few people were left on campus, then pushed his way into her room and assaulted her.
Cleary, who left Gettysburg after the attack, ultimately finished college in Silicon Valley, California, where he’d grown up. He then got a master’s degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas.
Years later, he sent the Facebook message to Keeler, and she renewed her efforts with police and prosecutors to have charges filed. In 2021, she shared her experience in an Associated Press story on the reluctance of authorities to prosecute campus sex crimes.
Cleary was indicted weeks later and following a three-year search, was extradited from Metz, France, where he had been detained on minor, unrelated charges in April 2024.
Cleary did not contest the account when he pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in July.
“I had been thinking about this moment for 12 years,” Keeler said that day, after seeing Cleary in court. She called it a surreal moment.
“It’s taken a lot of twists and turns to get to this point,” said Keeler, now 30. “It took a lot of people doing the right thing to get us here.”
Keeler, in interviews with the AP, described her decade-long effort to persuade authorities to pursue charges, starting hours after the assault.
Authorities in the U.S. and Europe tried to track Cleary down after the indictment, but seemed unable to follow his trail, online or otherwise.
In court in July, defense lawyer John Abom said Cleary was homeless at times and unaware of the charges. Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said he had his doubts, but could prove that Cleary was on the run.
The charge carries a maximum 10 years in prison. Cleary’s family members have declined to comment on the case and have not attended his court hearings.
The AP typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Keeler has done.
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