A campus sex assault suspect accused of sending an “I raped you” text to the victim will be extradited to the United States

Expert: College students more likely to be sexually assaulted during fall ‘red zone’

An American man is accused of sexually assaulting a college student in Pennsylvania in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said: Prosecutors in a French appeals court said. “So I raped you” He was extradited Thursday to the United States.

The Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeal in Metz, northeastern France, said that Ian Cleary was handed over to the American authorities at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Cleary, 31, was from Saratoga, California He was arrested in April In Metz after a three-year search. He has been detained awaiting extradition proceedings since his arrest. The Metz Court of Appeal ruled last July that he could be extradited.

Cleary has been the subject of an international search since authorities at Penn State issued a 2021 felony warrant in the case weeks after an Associated Press story detailed the reluctance of local prosecutors to pursue campus sex crimes.

The arrest warrant accuses Cleary of stalking an 18-year-old Gettysburg College student at a party in 2013, sneaking into her dorm and sexually assaulting her while texting her friends for help. He was a 20-year-old student at Gettysburg at the time, but never returned to campus.

accused, Shannon KellerThe rape test was performed on the same day. She gathered witnesses and evidence and spent years urging officials to press charges. She went to the authorities again in 2021 after discovering Facebook messages that appeared to come from Cleary’s account.

“I raped you,” the sender wrote in a series of messages.

“I’ll 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 does not typically identify victims of sexual assault without obtaining their permission, which Keller granted.

Throughout the United States, very few Campus rape They are prosecuted because victims are afraid to go to the police and because prosecutors are reluctant to bring cases that may be difficult to win, an AP investigation found.