Man who sent Facebook message about committing a 2013 campus sexual
assault pleads guilty
[July 18, 2025]
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — An American extradited from France to face
charges that he sexually assaulted a fellow Pennsylvania college student
in 2013 — and later sent her a Facebook message that said “So I raped
you” — pleaded guilty Thursday.
Ian Cleary, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault more than
a decade after Shannon Keeler says he sneaked into her first-year dorm
at Gettysburg College on the eve of winter break and assaulted her.
Cleary's guilty plea was the first time she'd seen him since the
assault.
“I had been thinking about this moment for 12 years,” said Keeler, who
clenched her husband's hand as Cleary was led into court by deputies.
She called it a surreal moment. A decade ago, a former prosecutor had
declined the case.
“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.”
Judge Kevin Hess set an Oct. 20 sentencing date. The two sides proposed
a four- to eight-year sentence, which the judge can accept or not.
Keeler, in interviews with The Associated Press, described her
decade-long efforts to persuade authorities to pursue charges, starting
hours after the assault.
She renewed the quest in 2021, after finding a series of disturbing
Facebook messages from his account.
Cleary has been in custody since his arrest on minor, unrelated charges
in Metz, France, in April 2024. A defense lawyer told the judge Thursday
that Cleary experienced several mental health episodes there and was
hospitalized around the time he sent the Facebook messages in 2019.
Cleary left Gettysburg after the assault and 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, where he spent time writing
medieval fiction, according to his online posts.
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Sexual assault suspect Ian Cleary departs from the Adams County
Court House in Gettysburg, Pa., May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke,
file)
The AP published an investigation on the case and on the broader
reluctance among prosecutors to pursue campus sex assault charges in
May 2021. An indictment followed weeks later.
Authorities in the U.S. and Europe tried to track Cleary down for
the next three years, but seemed unable to follow his trail, online
or otherwise.
In court Thursday, defense lawyer John Abom said Cleary was homeless
at times and unaware of the charges. Adams County District Attorney
Brian Sinnett on Thursday said he has his doubts, but cannot prove
that Cleary was on the run, so it's unlikely to be an issue at
sentencing.
The second-degree sexual assault charge carries a maximum 10 years
in prison. His family members have declined to comment on the case
and have not attended his court hearings. Abom also declined to
comment on Cleary's behalf Thursday.
The AP typically does not name people who say they have been
sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Keeler has
done.
“I hope that we as a society, the institutions around us, can make
truly successful legal outcomes more viable for victims,” she said
after the plea.
"It starts with listening to victims and making sure their voices
are heard,” she said, “even if the system’s slow to catch up.”
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