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Bethlehem police Clement Swaby was convicted Friday of rape and other crimes against Lehigh University and Lafayette College students.
Clement Swaby was convicted Friday of rape and other crimes against Lehigh University and Lafayette College students, with DNA, video evidence, car rental agreements and his own statements to police making the case during a five-day trial in Northampton County Court.
A jury found the 36-year-old Bethlehem man guilty of raping a Lehigh student in her off-campus apartment on May 19, 2020, two days after her graduation, and attempting to sexually assault several female Lafayette College students after breaking into off-campus apartments on two occasions in early 2021.
In each case, Swaby was armed with a knife and told the women he had a friend with a gun who would kill them if they didnât cooperate, according to testimony.
Swaby was convicted of 26 charges and faces a maximum state prison sentence of 269 years when he is sentenced Feb. 22.
âTodayâs verdict will give these five women their first restful night of sleep since the incidents occurred,â prosecutor Tatum Wilson said in a statement.
The Morning Call does not generally identify victims of alleged sexual crimes without their consent.
The most compelling evidence against Swaby was the DNA collected from the Lehigh rape victim, who recounted her ordeal Tuesday on the second day of the trial â waking before dawn to find a man in her room who then raped her at knifepoint.
The woman, now 24 and studying law in New York, saw Swaby in person for the first time in the courtroom. She said she recognized his eyes and nose, the parts of his face visible above the neck gaiter he wore during the assault.
The first Easton crime happened Feb. 22, 2021. Swaby, armed with a knife, entered a McCartney Street apartment occupied by two women, threatened one with rape and ran off when she screamed.
Weeks later, on March 5, Swaby was also the culprit in an attempted sexual assault in a neighboring McCartney Street apartment. He confronted two female students at knifepoint and ordered them to have oral sex with each other. In that case, too, he fled when one of the victims screamed.
In her opening statement, Wilson pointed out the similarities in the cases â a masked man with a knife breaking into the homes of college seniors, threatening rape, and taking and discarding the victimâs cellphones. In all three incidents, the culprit claimed to have a friend with a gun waiting outside.
Those similarities prompted Easton and Bethlehem police to conduct a joint investigation, during which they obtained video surveillance that included images of rental cars near the crime scenes that were traced to Swaby.
One of the Lafayette students picked Swaby out of a photo lineup, prosecutors said. Another identified his voice on a recording.
Swaby confessed to the Easton incidents, authorities said, but denied raping the Lehigh student, and said he would expect an apology when investigators determined his DNA wasnât a match to the DNA recovered from her. But a year to the day after the rape, the DNA was found to be a match.
https://www.mcall.com/2022/11/04/man-convicted-of-rape-attempted-sexual-assault-against-lehigh-and-lafayette-students/
