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After nearly 12 years, a Pennsylvania woman who was sexually assaulted at a college fraternity party confronted her attacker in court this week. The man, who later confessed to the assault in a Facebook message, was sentenced to two to four years in prison following his guilty plea.
As reported By ABC News, Shannon Keeler told reporters that facing him in court brought both emotion and relief. “I was shaking and tearing up a bit, but it felt really good to be able to look him in the eyes and tell him what he did to me,” she said in an interview that aired on Good Morning America.
Keeler was a freshman lacrosse player at a Gettysburg University in Pennsylvania in 2013 when she attended a fraternity party. She said a male student harassed her throughout the night, prompting a friend to walk her back to her dorm room. Moments later, the man followed, knocked on her door, and entered without permission. Once inside, she said he sexually assaulted her.
In court, Keeler read a victim impact statement describing how the assault affected her life. “The trauma of that night wasn’t confined to my dorm room. It changed how I saw myself,” she said. “My confidence, my self-care, my relationship with my body, all of it shifted in quiet, painful ways.”
She reported the incident to campus and local police, submitted to a rape kit, and cooperated fully with investigators. Despite her efforts, prosecutors declined to bring charges at the time.
Years later, while on vacation in 2020, she received Facebook messages from the man. One of them, she said, contained a direct confession: “So, I raped you. I’ll never do it to anyone ever again.” That message prompted prosecutors to reopen the case and file charges in 2021.
Authorities located the defendant in France in 2024, where he was arrested and extradited. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was sentenced in Pennsylvania. In court, he apologized to the Keeler and his family.
Keeler told reporters that while the prison term was shorter than expected, the conviction still represents accountability. “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, and that’s justice,” she said.
Keeler also said forgiveness has helped her heal. “Ultimately, forgiveness doesn’t just set him free. It sets me free too, right? And I don’t want to live with anger,” she said. “I believe in redemption as well, and he still has the power to live a good life and become a good person and do the right thing, and I hope he does.”
With time served, the man could be eligible for parole in six months.
SurvivorsRights.com specifically focuses on institutional sexual abuse and assault cases. However, this story illustrates how critical it can be for survivors to come forward, even years later, to reclaim their voices and pursue justice when the system once failed them.
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