EGN NEWS DESK
A person accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania faculty scholar in 2013 after which, years later, sending her a message that mentioned “So I raped you” has been arrested in France, the authorities mentioned.
The man, Ian Thomas Cleary of Saratoga, Calif., had been sought since 2021, when a warrant for his arrest was issued charging him with sexual assault. Mr. Cleary, 31, was detained final month in Metz, France, based on the prosecutor’s workplace on the Metz Appeals Court.
The prosecutor’s workplace mentioned that Mr. Cleary had been arrested in reference to a case involving the possession of stolen items. It didn’t present additional particulars concerning the circumstances of the arrest however mentioned that Mr. Cleary had advised the French police that he had been in France for the previous two to a few years.
Mr. Cleary remains to be in detention, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned. It was not instantly clear how shortly Mr. Cleary could be extradited to the United States, however the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned he may very well be detained for as much as 60 days, which is the period of time American judicial authorities should file an official extradition request.
The arrest warrant was issued after Shannon Keeler found a sequence of Facebook messages from Mr. Cleary and confirmed them to the authorities in Adams County, Pa., the place she was a scholar at Gettysburg College on the time of the reported assault. A lawyer for Ms. Keeler, Andrea M. Levy, mentioned she was not commenting on the investigation on Tuesday.
Brian Sinnett, the Adams County district legal professional, who issued the arrest warrant for Mr. Cleary in 2021, didn’t reply to inquiries this week about his arrest in France.
Ms. Keeler reported a sexual assault to the Gettysburg Police Department on Dec. 15, 2013, after she and a few associates attended a party on the Gettysburg College campus to have a good time the top of finals, based on a possible trigger affidavit.
She advised the authorities that Mr. Cleary, additionally a scholar on the faculty on the time, had adopted her and a buddy from the party to her dorm room. The buddy who had accompanied her mentioned that Mr. Cleary had provided $20 to depart him alone with Ms. Keeler, the affidavit mentioned.
The buddy advised Mr. Cleary “to go away,” and he did, based on the affidavit.
But minutes after the buddy left, Ms. Keeler advised the authorities, there was a knock on her door, and he or she opened it with out peering by way of the peephole, based on the affidavit.
The authorities mentioned that Mr. Cleary entered the condominium, kissed Ms. Keeler and had intercourse together with her with out consent.
After he apologized and left the unit, Ms. Keeler messaged her buddy, “OMG please Help me,” the affidavit mentioned.
In 2021, Ms. Keeler advised The Associated Press that the authorities had advised her it was tough to prosecute assault circumstances wherein the sufferer had been consuming. She additionally mentioned she realized in 2020 that her rape package from the investigation had been destroyed after the case was initially closed.
But a break within the case got here in May 2020, when Ms. Keeler discovered a sequence of Facebook messages that Mr. Cleary had despatched to her in December 2019, based on the affidavit.
One mentioned, “So I raped you.” Another mentioned, “I’ll by no means do it to anybody ever once more.”
The police obtained a search warrant for the Facebook account and matched it to Mr. Cleary by way of a cellphone quantity, based on the affidavit. The warrant for Mr. Cleary’s arrest was issued in June 2021.
By final yr, the U.S. Marshals Service had come to imagine that he may need gone abroad, and Mr. Cleary was the topic of an Interpol alert known as a crimson discover, based on The A.P.
