Years After the Crime, He Messaged Her: 'So I Raped You' — Now She’s Finally Seeing Justice By Lesley Cosme Torres

A man accused of raping a fellow college student in Pennsylvania in 2013 — and later sending her a Facebook message that read “So I raped you” — admitted to the charges on Thursday. 

Ian Cleary, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault over a decade after he stalked Shannon Keeler at a party, snuck into her dorm and sexually assaulted her during her freshman year at Gettysburg College, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

“I had been thinking about this moment for 12 years,” Keeler said, per the outlet. 

“It’s taken a lot of twists and turns to get to this point,” Keeler said, according to the Post-Gazette. “It took a lot of people doing the right thing to get us here.”

Prosecutors had previously declined to pursue the case, but authorities took a renewed interest in the case after Keeler opened her unread Facebook messages in 2021, and saw a name she wasn’t expecting, according to the Associated Press. 

“So I raped you,” Cleary wote.

“I’ll never do it to anyone ever again,” another message read, per the outlet. 

The AP published an investigation on the case, and an indictment followed weeks later, per the outlet. 

After a three year search, authorities found Cleary in Metz, France in April 2024 and moved to extradite him to Pennsylvania, the AP reported, citing the U.S. Marshals Service.  

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In court, both sides have proposed a four to eight year sentence, which is up to the judge to decide, the Post-Gazette reported. Judge Kevin Hess is set to sentence Cleary on Oct. 20. 

“I hope that we as a society, the institutions around us, can make truly successful legal outcomes more viable for victims,” Keeler said in court, per the outlet.

“It starts with listening to victims and making sure their voices are heard,” she continued. “Even if the system’s slow to catch up.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.