An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said “So I raped you” has been detained in France after a three-year search.
A prosecutor in Metz, France, confirmed on Tuesday that Ian Thomas Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California, had been taken into custody last month and would be held pending extradition proceedings.
Cleary had been the subject of an international search since authorities in Pennsylvania 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, sneaking into her dorm and sexually assaulting her while she texted friends for help. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but did not return to campus.
According to a French judicial official, Cleary was detained in the street in Metz on April 24 as part of a police check. He told a magistrate the 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 on Tuesday.