Edinburgh prisoner Nicholas Rossi awaits extradition appeal result after ‘shambolic’ court bid
US fugitive Nicholas Rossi[1] must await a ruling on his appeal against extradition after a “car crash” court[2] appearance before top Scottish judges. Rossi represented himself during a day-long hearing on Thursday and delivered a “shambolic” case which left judges exasperated. The 36-year-old repeatedly ignored rulings and was slapped down several times by judge Lady Dorrian who warned him he could be held in contempt, reports the Daily Record[3].
At one stage after Rossi went on an incomprehensible tangent about the Mormon church, Lady Dorrian told him: “I don’t know how you think you are assisting yourself with these submissions.”
The hearing took place in front of Lady Dorrian, Lord Malcolm and Lord Armstrong at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh. Rossi has been at the centre of a long-running battle to return him to the US after being discovered hiding out in Glasgow.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen ruled in August there was no impediment to Rossi being extradited to his homeland to face charges including rape. Scottish ministers later signed his extradition order, but Rossi appealed against the court’s ruling and continues to claim he’s an Irishman called Arthur Knight. Rossi, acting on his own behalf and speaking in a raspy fake Irish accent, raised several motions at the start of the hearing.
He called for a ban on press reporting of the case, an extension to give him more time to prepare, and permission to call a former Utah prosecutor as a witness over a video link. The judges refused each of his motions, informing Rossi he must make submissions based on his appeal that Sheriff McFadyen “erred” in his extradition ruling. The sheriff had also blasted Rossi’s claim to be Arthur Knight in a previous ruling on the subject of the accused’s true identity.
Join Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.[6] Seated in his wheelchair at a desk with his wife, Miranda Knight to assist him with paperwork, Rossi told the court he objected to being referred to as ‘Nicholas Rossi’. Lady Dorrian told him: “That has been judicially determined.
That is the name you will be referred to by this court. That is the end of the matter.” Speaking for around three hours, Rossi made a string of meandering arguments which made little sense.
He said the Crown Office acted “illicitly, unlawfully and in a corrupt manner” and listed the various lawyers who had acted for him previously, specifying which ones had quit and who he had sacked. He also went on rants about various newspapers, the BBC, YouTube, and podcasters. Rossi attacked prosecutors in Utah and raised allegations made against the Mormon church which he claimed was involved in his persecution.
Lady Dorrian told him: “I cannot force you to make relevant submissions. I can only urge you to do so.”
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The morning newsletter arrives every day before 9am and the evening newsletter, manually curated by the team, is sent at 6.30pm, giving you a round up of the most important stories of the day. To sign up to any of our newsletters, visit this link here[9]. After he persisted with the same conspiracy theories, the judge said he was “using this forum to make scurrilous allegations” which was “not likely to assist your case”.
When Rossi concluded his submissions, Lady Dorrian said the judges would issue a written ruling on the appeal as soon as possible. A court source said: “That was a car crash. I’m not sure anyone has put forward a worse case in the history of the Scottish court system.
“It was so shambolic that you have to wonder whether it was deliberate, or if he was just the world’s worst ‘lawyer’.” Rossi is wanted by authorities in Utah for allegedly raping a woman in 2008. He also faces multiple complaints against him in Rhode Island for alleged domestic violence.
He was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19. In his ruling approving extradition, Sheriff McFadyen branded Rossi “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative”. Rossi reportedly told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live.
Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.
References
- ^ Nicholas Rossi (www.edinburghlive.co.uk)
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