American man who sent sex attack victim Facebook message saying 'so I raped you' is finally arrested in France after two years on the run

An American alleged sex offender who sent his victim a message saying 'so I raped you' on Facebook has finally been arrested in France after two years on the run. 

Ian Thomas Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California, is accused of assaulting Pennsylvania college student Shannon Keeler in her dorm room in December 2013. 

Cleary was detained in the northeastern French city of Metz on April 24, officials confirmed Tuesday. He will be held there pending extradition proceedings. 

Allegations against Cleary triggered a worldwide search after Pennsylvania authorities issued a 2021 felony warrant accusing him of stalking Keeler. 

The arrest warrant accuses him of sneaking into Keeler's dorm room at Gettysburg College and sexually assaulting her while she sent frantic pleas for help over text. 

Ian Thomas Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California , is accused of assaulting Pennsylvania college student Shannon Keeler in her dorm room in December 2013

Allegations against Cleary triggered a worldwide search after Pennsylvania authorities issued a 2021 felony warrant accusing him of stalking Keeler (pictured)

Pictured: messages Cleary sent to Keeler in the aftermath of the alleged assault 

According to a French judicial official, Cleary was detained on the street in Metz on April 24 as part of a police check. 

He told a magistrate that he had 'arrived in France two or three years ago' from Albania and had only recently come to Metz, but did not have housing there, the official said. 

A French lawyer appointed to represent him did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.

Cleary, according to his online posts, had previously spent time in France and also has ties to California and Maryland. 

His father is a tech executive in Silicon Valley, while his mother has lived in Baltimore. 

The Gettysburg accuser, Shannon Keeler, had a rape exam done the same day she was assaulted in 2013. 

She gathered witnesses and evidence and spent years urging officials to file charges. 

But it wasn't until she realized Cleary had sent her the chilling Facebook message that she went to authorities again in 2021, and they launched a search.  

'So I raped you,' the sender wrote in a string of messages in December 2019. 'I'll never do it to anyone ever again,' he went on, adding 'I need to hear your voice, and 'I´ll pray for you.'

 Keeler poses for a portrait in the United States on Wednesday, April 7, 2021

The Gettysburg accuser, Shannon Keeler, had a rape exam done the same day she was assaulted in 2013 

According to the June 2021 warrant, police verified that the Facebook account used to send the messages belonged to Ian Cleary. 

After leaving Gettysburg, Cleary earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Santa Clara University, near his family home in California. 

He also worked for Tesla, then moved to France for several years, according to his website, which describes his self-published medieval fiction.

Keeler, originally from Moorestown, New Jersey, stayed on to graduate from Gettysburg and help lead the women's lacrosse team to a national title.

By 2023, two years after the warrant was filed, Keeler and her lawyers wondered how he was avoiding capture in the age of digital tracking. 

The U.S. Marshals Service thought he was likely overseas and on the move, even as he was the subject of an Interpol alert called a red notice.

Across the U.S., very few campus rapes are prosecuted, both because victims fear going to police and prosecutors hesitate to bring cases that can be hard to win, the AP investigation found.

Keeler, when the warrant was issued, said she was grateful, but knew it only happened 'because I went public with my story, which no survivor should have to do in order to obtain justice.'