Man who sent Facebook message about committing a campus sexual assault pleads guilty
Ian Cleary, 32, who was raised in Silicon Valley before attending Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, had hired a private lawyer to review the evidence as he considered a potential plea.
Judge Kevin Hess set an Oct. 20 sentencing date. The two sides proposed a four- to eight-year sentence, which the judge can accept or not.
Accuser Shannon Keeler, in interviews with the Associated Press, described her decade-long efforts to persuade authorities to pursue charges, starting hours after she says Cleary, a third-year student, sneaked into her first-year dorm on the eve of winter break.
She renewed the quest in 2021 after finding a series of disturbing Facebook messages from his account. Keeler faced Cleary in the courtroom Thursday for the first time since the attack. She clutched her husband's hand as Cleary entered the courtroom in handcuffs and listened stoically as he gave brief answers to the judge's questions.
Cleary has been in custody since his arrest on minor, unrelated charges in Metz, France, in April 2024. A defense lawyer told the judge Thursday that Cleary experienced several mental health episodes there and was hospitalized around the time he sent the Facebook message in 2019.
The second-degree sexual assault charge carries a maximum 10 years in prison. His family members have declined to comment on the case and have not attended his court hearings.
Cleary, who grew up in Saratoga, Calif., left Gettysburg after the assault and finished college near home. He then got a master's degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas, where he spent time writing medieval fiction, according to his online posts.
The AP published an investigation on the case and on the broader reluctance among prosecutors to pursue campus sex assault charges in May 2021. An indictment followed weeks later.
Authorities in the U.S. and Europe had been trying to track down Cleary until his capture in France.
The AP typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Keeler has done.
Dale writes for the Associated Press.
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