French appeals court prosecutors say an American man accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania student in 2013 and then sending her a message on Facebook saying: “So I raped you.” was extradited to the United States on Thursday.
Prosecutors at the appeals court in Metz, northeastern France, said Ian Cleary was handed over to U.S. authorities at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California, was arrested in April in Metz after three years of research. Since his arrest, he has been detained pending extradition proceedings. The Metz Court of Appeal ruled in July that he could be extradited.
Cleary had been the subject of an international search since Pennsylvania authorities issued a 2021 felony arrest warrant in the case, weeks after an Associated Press article detailed the reluctance of local prosecutors to prosecute sex crimes on campus.
The arrest warrant accuses Cleary of stalking an 18-year-old Gettysburg College student at a party in 2013, sneaking into her dorm room and sexually assaulting her while she was texting get help. He was a 20-year-old student at Gettysburg at the time, but he did not return to campus.
/PA
The accuser, Shannon Keelerunderwent an examination for rape the same day. She gathered witnesses and evidence and spent years urging authorities to press charges. She went to authorities again in 2021 after discovering Facebook messages that appeared to come from Cleary’s account.
“So I raped you,” the sender wrote in a series of messages.
“I will never do that to anyone again.”
“I need to hear your voice.”
“I will 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 generally does not identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Keeler granted.
In the United States, very few rapes on campus are being prosecuted, both because victims are afraid to go to police and prosecutors are reluctant to pursue charges that can be difficult to win, according to an AP investigation.
