Left inset: Ian Cleary (U.S. Marshals). Right inset: Shannon Keeler (Gettysburg College). Background: The campus of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania where Ian Cleary sexually assaulted Shannon Keeler (WPVI/YouTube).
A former college hockey player is now facing prison time after being convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow student in Pennsylvania. Years later, he admitted his actions in a Facebook message, stating bluntly, “So I raped you.” The sentencing took place on Monday.
Ian Cleary, now aged 32, displayed unsettling behavior at a fraternity party, where he acted “creepy” and “gross” toward Shannon Keeler. According to Keeler’s 2021 account to the Associated Press, Cleary forced his way into her dorm room one night in December 2013.
“He just wasn’t taking no for an answer,” Keeler recounted, describing how Cleary persistently attempted to make advances while they danced at the party. Another woman at the event also shared her experience with the AP, highlighting Cleary’s inappropriate conduct.
“He grabbed my chest and my crotch and said he wanted to take me away,” the woman recalled. “I panicked and claimed I needed to go to the bathroom.”
According to prosecutors, Cleary targeted Keeler, who was 18 at the time, following her back to her dorm and forcing his way inside. Despite her pleas for him to stop and leave, Cleary proceeded to assault her while she desperately texted friends for help.
“Afterward, he broke down crying,” Keeler told the AP. “He kept saying, ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you. Did I hurt you?’ Then he fled.”
More than half a decade passed before Cleary reached out on Facebook in 2019 to remind Keeler of the horror she experienced.
“So I raped you,” Cleary wrote.
“I’ll never do it to anyone ever again,” he said, adding, “I need to hear your voice” and “I pray for you.”
Cleary claimed he suffered from mental health issues and sent the messages as part of a 12-step program.
Keeler’s assault drew national media attention in 2021 after the AP reported how the young woman went to police to report the assault in 2013 and nothing was done. An investigation by Gettysburg College had been closed after Cleary left the school, and the local district attorney chose to not pursue charges after probing the incident in 2015, per the AP.
Prosecutors reevaluated Keeler’s case after being shown the DMs from Cleary in 2021 and a judge signed off on charges that June.
Cleary, who was an upperclassman at Gettysburg College and goalie for the men’s hockey team at the time of the assault , was identified by other people who had attended the party that night. After leaving the school, Cleary earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Santa Clara University in California and then moved to France. He was tracked down and arrested overseas in April 2024.
Police had been actively searching for Cleary since the summer of 2021 after his arrest warrant was issued. He was busted in Metz, France, and extradited to face trial in Adams County.
Cleary pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault in July 2025 and was sentenced Monday to serve two to four years in prison, the AP reports.
Keeler said in court that she believes Cleary would’ve been given a harsher charge and punishment had evidence not been “lost,” and if prosecutors would have taken her accusations more seriously.
“The system that failed me a decade ago finally delivered accountability, but at a cost,” she said Monday, according to local ABC affiliate WPVI.
“My life moved on, but the impact never went away, not for me, not for my family, not for anyone who had to watch this unfold again and again,” she said.
