Campus sexual assault suspect accused of sending ‘So I raped you’ message to victim detained in France after 3 years of search

American man accused of sexually assaulting Pennsylvania student in 2013 and then sending her a Facebook message saying: “So I raped you.” was arrested in France after three years of research.

A prosecutor in Metz, France, confirmed Tuesday that Ian Thomas Cleary31, of Saratoga, California, was arrested last month and will be held pending extradition proceedings.

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, sneaking into her dorm room and sexually assaulting her while she was texting friends for help. He was a 20-year-old student at Gettysburg at the time, but he did not return to campus.

According to a French judicial official, Cleary was arrested in the street in Metz on April 24 as part of a police check. He told a magistrate that he had “arrived in France two or three years ago” from Albania and that he had only recently arrived in Metz, but that he did not have access to accommodation, the official said. A French lawyer appointed to represent him did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday.

Cleary, according to his online postings, had previously spent time in France and also has ties to California and Maryland. Her father is a technology executive in Silicon Valley, while her mother lived in Baltimore. Neither he nor his parents responded to repeated phone and email messages left by the AP, including calls to his parents Tuesday.

Gettysburg accuser Shannon Keeler underwent a rape examination the same day as her assault in 2013. 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 Ian Cleary. Adams County Prosecutor Brian Sinnett, who filed the complaint, did not immediately return a call Tuesday.

The AP generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault without their permission, which Keeler granted. His lawyer, contacted Tuesday, had no immediate comment on Cleary’s detention.

After leaving Gettysburg, Cleary earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Santa Clara University near his family home in California, worked for Tesla, then moved to France for several years, according to his site Internet, which describes his self-published medieval fiction.

Keeler, a native of Moorestown, New Jersey, went on to graduate from Gettysburg and help the women’s lacrosse team win a national title.

In 2023, two years after the warrant was filed, Keeler and his lawyers wondered how he could avoid capture in the age of digital tracking. The U.S. Marshals Service believed he was likely overseas and on the move, even though he was the subject of an Interpol alert called a red notice.

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 the AP investigation.

Keeler, when the arrest warrant was issued, said she was grateful, but knew it only happened “because I went public with my story, which no survivor should have to do to obtain justice.