A Pennsylvania woman sounded off after the man who admitted to raping her in a Facebook message received a paltry jail sentence.
Shannon Keeler blasted the court during the sentencing hearing of her assailant, Ian Cleary, years after the assault took place.
Cleary, 32, was sentenced to two to four years in prison after pleading guilty in July to second-degree sexual assault, the Associated Press reported.
The judge took into account Cleary’s guilty plea, his remorse and his long history of mental illness in giving a sentence below state guidelines after the rapist said he sent the messages in hopes of seeking atonement, as part of a 12-step program.
Keeler, however, told the court that the messages only reopened wounds she had carried from the 2013 assault.
“The system meant to protect me protected you instead,” Keeler said in her impact statement, in which she detailed the years the attack had gone without being prosecuted.
“This isn’t just my story, it’s the story of countless women,” she said.
Cleary had stalked Keeler at a party, snuck in to her first-year dorm at Gettysberg College on the night before winter break in December 2013, when few people were on campus, and sexually assaulted her, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Keeler, who was an 18 at the time, reported the attack to police, had a rape kit test conducted and even found witnesses who saw Cleary that night, the court document read.
But prosecutors were reluctant to charge Cleary, who later moved to California.
After a nearly 12-year odyssey for justice, Shannon Keeler was able to confront in court the man who confessed to sexually assaulting her at a 2013 fraternity party.https://t.co/5dE1vFhLi3
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 21, 2025
In 2020, Keeler said she read an unopened Facebook message Cleary had sent her in 2019.
“So I raped you,” Cleary wrote, according to the affidavit.
He added, “I need to hear your voice. I need to know if I did it or not.”
Investigators verified the Facebook account did indeed belong to Cleary.
Authorities decided to look at the case with fresh eyes after Keeler sat down with the AP to discuss how difficult it is to prosecute sex crimes on college campuses.
Cleary was indicted later that year.
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He faced a maximum of 10 years in prison for the attack, though both sides recommended four to eight years.
“The defendant has admitted his guilt, he’s come forward and even though 10 to 11 alarming years have passed in the meantime, we wouldn’t be here today but for his hope for some kind of forgiveness and contrition,” Judge Kevin Hess said, though acknowledged that anyone with daughters or granddaughters in college would find the crime “horrifying.”
Keeler told ABC News’ Juju Chang in an interview that aired on Good Morning America that she believes Cleary’s sentence was less that what “he deserved” but noted that “he’s going to jail and he’s going to have the label of a sexual predator for the rest of his life and that’s accountability … that’s justice.”
Cleary apologized for his actions during the sentencing hearing and said he is “committed to getting treatment for mental health and stuff like that as I go forward.”
Keeler also added that she has since forgiven Cleary.
“Forgiveness doesn’t just set him free, it sets me free too,” she told the outlet.
“And I don’t want to live with anger and I believe in redemption as well,” she explained.
“And he still has the power to live a good life and become a good person … do the right thing, and I hope he does.”
