An American man who was arrested in France on accusations of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 has been extradited to the United States to face charges, the French authorities said, reports The New York Times.
The man, Ian Thomas Cleary of Saratoga, California, was put on a flight on Thursday morning from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, said Christophe Mira, senior prosecutor at the Metz Appeals Court in France.
Mr. Cleary, 31, was arrested last year in France after a three-year search that was prompted in part by Facebook messages he sent to the woman he is accused of assaulting years before, in 2013. The student, Shannon Keeler, reported to the authorities in Adams County, Pa., where she was attending Gettysburg College, that Mr. Cleary — also a student at the college — had attacked her on the night of Dec. 15.
But Mr. Cleary was not charged until 2021, after Ms. Keeler found a series of messages that he had sent her on Facebook in 2019, including one that read: “So I raped you.”
Calls and messages to Héloise Rouchel, a public defender for Mr. Cleary in Metz, were not immediately returned. It was unclear if anyone else was representing Mr. Cleary.
Ms. Keeler told the authorities that Mr. Cleary had followed her and a friend home after a party on campus, according to a probable cause affidavit. The friend told Mr. Cleary to “go away” after he offered $20 to be left alone with Ms. Keeler, the affidavit said.