Clement Swaby, the man responsible for the 2021 McCartney Street break-ins and a 2020 rape of a Lehigh University student, was sentenced to 75 to 150 years in Northampton County Court last Wednesday.
Swaby was arrested in early 2021 after authorities pieced together evidence related to the McCartney Street break-ins. A jury convicted the 36-year-old former Bethlehem resident on all 26 charges related to his Lehigh Valley crime spree – which included rape, burglary and indecent assault – after a trial in November.
During the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, President Judge of the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Michael J. Koury Jr. said that in all his years on the bench, Swaby was “the worst of the worst I have ever seen,” according to The Morning Call.
WFMZ reported that the judge told Swaby, “Monsters do exist. You’re one of them.”
Swaby’s crime spree began in 2020 when he raped a Lehigh student in her off-campus apartment.
In February 2021, Swaby broke into a McCartney Street residence with a knife and threatened to rape a female student before fleeing; one woman who lived in the house also reported that cash was stolen from her wallet.
In March 2021, just over a week after the first incident on College Hill, Swaby broke into another McCartney Street house and, armed with a knife, demanded that two women perform a sexual act on each other. One victim realized later that almost $500 was missing from her purse, and the other victim received notification that her Starbucks gift card was used at a store in New Jersey for an unauthorized purchase.
Swaby confessed to the Easton incidents but denied raping the Lehigh student, according to authorities.
Swaby’s attorney could not be reached for comment.
Using DNA evidence, investigators linked Swaby to the 2020 rape. By putting his DNA into a national data bank, several other agencies connected Swaby to crimes in their jurisdictions. He is currently facing charges for an alleged 2019 sexual assault of a woman in her home in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania for which he will later stand trial. Similar charges are pending against him in Winter Park, Florida.
