A person who despatched a Fb message that stated, “So I raped you,” to a lady he had sexually assaulted in school in 2013 was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in jail on Monday.
The sentence got here greater than a 12 months after Ian Cleary was extradited again to Pennsylvania from France over the assault at Gettysburg School and almost 12 years after the sufferer first went to police.
The choose took into consideration Cleary’s responsible plea, his regret and his lengthy historical past of psychological sickness in giving a sentence under state tips. Cleary, 32, stated he despatched the messages as a part of a 12-step program, in hopes of looking for atonement.
Sufferer Shannon Keeler advised the courtroom on Monday that the messages solely reopened wounds she had lengthy carried over the assault, which went years with out being prosecuted.
“The system meant to guard me protected you as a substitute,” stated Keeler, detailing in a robust 10-minute affect assertion the years she spent pursuing expenses, which prosecutors are sometimes reluctant to file in campus sexual assault instances.
“This isn’t simply my story, that is the story of numerous girls,” she stated.
Cleary confronted a most of 10 years in jail for the assault, and the 2 sides had initially proposed a four- to eight-year sentence.
Andrea Levy, Keeler’s lawyer, stated the sentence was “lower than what we anticipated and definitely lower than he deserves,” however she stated there was aid that the case was over.
Keeler advised police that Cleary sneaked into her dorm on the eve of winter break, when few folks have been left on campus, then pushed his manner into her room and assaulted her. She was an 18-year-old in her first semester on campus on the time.
Senior Choose Kevin Hess stated that anybody with daughters or, like him, granddaughters in school would discover the crime “horrifying.”
Nonetheless, he stated, “the defendant has admitted his guilt, he’s come ahead and though 10 to 11 alarming years have handed within the meantime, we wouldn’t be right here right this moment however for his hope for some sort of forgiveness and contrition.”
Cleary left Gettysburg after the assault and finally completed school in Silicon Valley, California, the place he’d grown up. He then received a grasp’s diploma and labored for Tesla earlier than transferring abroad.
In 2019, he despatched the Fb message to Keeler, and she or he renewed her efforts with police and prosecutors after noticing them just a few months later. In 2021, she shared her expertise in an Related Press story on the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue campus intercourse crimes.
Cleary was indicted weeks after the AP story was printed, and following a three-year search, he was extradited from Metz, France, the place he had been detained on a vagrancy-related cost in April 2024.
In courtroom Monday, Cleary, standing only a few toes away, apologized to Keeler and his father.
“I’m dedicated to getting remedy for psychological well being and stuff like that as I am going ahead,” he stated.
Cleary’s members of the family have declined to touch upon the case and didn’t attend most of his courtroom hearings.
Keeler, in interviews with the AP, described her repeated efforts to steer authorities to press expenses, beginning hours after the assault.
“I had been fascinated by this second for 12 years,” Keeler stated after seeing Cleary in courtroom in July, when he pleaded responsible to second-degree sexual assault. She known as it a surreal second.
Authorities within the U.S. and Europe tried to monitor Cleary down after the indictment however appeared unable to observe his path, on-line or in any other case, till his arrest within the unrelated case.
Protection lawyer John Abom maintained that Cleary was homeless at occasions and unaware of the costs. Adams County District Lawyer Brian Sinnett stated he had his doubts however couldn’t show that Cleary was on the run.
The AP usually doesn’t identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Keeler has executed.
“The system that failed me a decade in the past lastly delivered accountability, however at a value. Proof was misplaced. Time handed,” she advised the courtroom Monday, noting that outcomes of the rape package she was provided that night time had been destroyed by the point of the indictment.
“My life moved on, however the affect by no means went away, not for me, not for my household, not for anybody who needed to watch this unfold many times,” she stated.
