PARIS — An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania university student in 2013 and later has been charged with sexual assault, French appeals court prosecutors said. By sending a Facebook message “So I raped you,” he was being extradited to the United States on Thursday.
Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Metz, north-east France, said Ian Cleary He was handed over to US authorities Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, Calif., was arrested in April after a three-year manhunt in Metz. He has been detained pending extradition proceedings since his arrest. The Court of Appeal of Metz ruled in July that he could be extradited.
Cleary was the subject of an international manhunt just weeks after Pennsylvania authorities issued a 2021 felony warrant. An Associated Press story It detailed the reluctance of local prosecutors to pursue sex crimes on campus.
The arrest warrant accuses Cleary of stalking an 18-year-old Gettysburg University student at a party in 2013, entering her bedroom and sexually assaulting her while she texted friends for help. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but he never returned to campus.
The accuser, Shannon Keeler, underwent a rape exam the same day. He collected witnesses and evidence and spent years urging officials to press charges. He went to the authorities again in 2021 after discovering Facebook posts that appeared to be from Cleary’s account.
“So I raped you,” the sender wrote in a string of messages.
“I will never do that to anyone 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 does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their consent, Keeler said.
