PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said “So I raped you” was extradited Thursday from France to the United States.
Ian Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California, arrived in the U.S. and was being flown to Pennsylvania, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said. Cleary had been detained in April in Metz, France, after a three-year search. A French appeals court later said he could be extradited.
The Appeal Court prosecutors’ office in Metz, in northeastern France, said Cleary was handed over to U.S. authorities at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.
Former Gettysburg University student Shannon Keeler, who pursued the case for more than a decade, said the news gave her “renewed faith” in the justice system.
“This arrest and extradition give me renewed faith that, after many years of waiting, the justice system can work, when survivors persist with the help and support of family, friends, advocates, and attorneys,” Keeler said in a press release issued through her attorney.
Cleary had been the subject of an international search since authorities in Pennsylvania issued a 2021 felony warrant in the case, weeks after an Associated Press story detailed the reluctance of local prosecutors to pursue campus sex crimes.
The arrest warrant accuses Cleary of stalking the 18-year-old Keeler at a campus party in 2013, sneaking into her dorm and sexually assaulting her while she texted friends for help. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but didn’t return to campus.
Keeler had a rape exam done the same day. She gathered witnesses and evidence and spent years urging officials to file charges. She went to authorities again in 2021 after discovering the Facebook messages that seemed to come from Cleary’s account.
“So I raped you,” the sender wrote in a string of messages.
“I’ll never do it to anyone ever again.”
“I need to hear your voice.”
“I’ll pray for you.”
According to the June 2021 warrant, police verified that the Facebook account used to send the messages belonged to Cleary.
The AP doesn’t typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Keeler has granted.
“It took an incredible amount of courage and unwavering resolve for Shannon to get this far," lawyer Andrea Levy said in the statement, “and she is deeply grateful to law enforcement at every level who worked to locate, capture and extradite Ian Cleary.”
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Vaux-Montagny and Corbet contributed to this report from Paris.
Nicolas Vaux-montagny, Sylvie Corbet And Maryclaire Dale, The Associated Press
