Rape fugitive Nicholas Rossi is booked into Utah jail after finally being extradited from Scotland where fantasist spent two years claiming to be an Irish orphan
- Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is charged with sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in 2008
- He was not identified as a suspect until about a decade later, due to a backlog of DNA test kits
- Rossi faked his own death[1] at one point during his decade-long run from the law across multiple countries
By Stephen M. Lepore For Dailymail.Com[2] and Associated Press[3]
Published: 04:11, 9 January 2024 | Updated: 04:23, 9 January 2024
Nicholas Rossi, the rape suspect who faked his own death[4], has finally been booked into a Utah[5] jail following his extradition from Scotland after a long-running legal battle.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, is charged with sexually assaulting a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, in 2008, according to local prosecutors.
He was not identified as a suspect until about a decade later, due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime[6] Lab.
The 36-year-old, who has used at least 10 aliases in his run from the law, was booked Friday afternoon into the Davis County Jail, which houses many federal detainees in northern Utah.
Rossi rose to fame for his claims he was not the suspect. He also made headlines for a TV interview claiming he wasn’t Rossi and was a man named Arthur Knight as he gestured wildly and fogged up his glasses.
Nicholas Rossi, the rape suspect who faked his own death , has finally been booked into a Utah jail following his extradition from Scotland after a long-running legal battle
Rossi will likely be transferred to Utah County in the coming days, where he will stand trial for felony rape charges, according to the Utah County Attorney’s Office.
Rossi faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County, where prosecutors say he sexually assaulted a 26-year-old former girlfriend after an argument, also in 2008.
He faces multiple other complaints against him in Rhode Island and Ohio for alleged domestic violence, sexual abuse and fraud.
His initial court date had not been set as of Monday and records did not yet indicate who will represent him in court.
Scottish ministers signed an order in September giving permission for Rossi to be extradited.
Last month, appeal judges had quashed Rossi’s bid to avoid extradition, paving the way for him to be removed from Scotland to face serious sex charges in the US.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: ‘We assisted partner agencies with the extradition of a 36-year-old man.’
Rape suspect Nicholas Rossi (pictured at court in July) has been extradited from Scotland to the US after a long-running legal battle
Rossi (pictured in July last year) has claimed this is a case of false identity and said he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight
Police believe Rossi staged his own death in 2020 to escape sex and fraud charges
Rossi has repeatedly claimed he is the victim of mistaken identity and says he is an Irish orphan.
The suspect claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in late 2019 and told friends he was dying.
An obituary appeared online for Rossi in early 2020 saying he had died and that his ashes had been scattered at sea.
But the following year he was arrested on a Covid hospital ward in Scotland, where he was registered as Arthur Knight.
It was then ruled that the fugitive – who appeared throughout his court dates in a wheelchair, using an oxygen mask – is indeed Rossi after he was identified through DNA and distinctive tattoos, which were described in an Interpol alert.
Under the guise of Arthur Brown, Rossi is believed to have met his wife, Miranda Knight, in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming the name Arthur Knight.
They moved to Glasgow shortly afterwards but in 2021, Rossi became so ill with Covid that he had to be hospitalized at the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
In July 2020, DNA allegedly linked him to a 2008 rape in Utah which is ultimately what led to his discovery in Scotland.
He was arrested on December 13, 2021 at the Glasgow hospital by police officers who served him with an Interpol red notice.
A mugshot from the arrest of Nicholas Rossi by police in Massachusetts in 2010
He also faces multiple complaints against him in Rhode Island for alleged domestic violence (pictured in 2008 in Utah)
His wife Miranda Knight seen leaving Edinburgh Sheriff Court after a hearing last year
With the assistance of medical staff at the hospital, the patient initially named as Arthur Knight was identified as Rossi.
There has never been an official version of events from Rossi because he continues to insist he is Arthur Knight and that the authorities have the wrong man.
In one interview with Dateline, Rossi is seen speaking in what appears to be an English accent and he angrily insists he is a British man called Arthur Knight.
He also theatrically tried standing to prove that he was unable to walk before throwing himself back down.
Rossi appeared alongside his wife British wife, Miranda who shouted: ‘Woah’, before trying to stabilize him
‘I am not Nicholas Alahverdian.
I do not know how to make this clearer,’ he told NBC in a bizarre accent, muffled by an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.
In court appearances, he has maintained his pained English accent, with an Irish lilt whenever he mentions the word Dublin, where he claims to have been born.
Miranda has continued to stand by her husband’s side since he was first arrested in December 2021.
Rossi was interviewed alongside his wife, Miranda Knight, whom he met in Bristol after fleeing to the UK to escape allegations of sexual assault in the US
Rossi appeared at the court by video link in August after claiming to be unwell
Nicholas Rossi’s wife Miranda Knight arrives for a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in June this year
‘I’m here with Arthur,’ she told the Daily Record in February. ‘I know my husband, I love my husband, and he’s always been the perfect gentleman to me and he’s always wanted the best for me.
‘I know what I’ve read about this other person,’ she continued. ‘The claims and what he’s done is black and white to who I’m married to.
‘When you live with someone and are married to them you know everything about them.
‘You can’t change a person, and someone who has done sexual assaults or rapes, which I’ve read about this person – that person would just continue.
‘There’s absolutely nothing I’ve ever seen which shows Arthur isn’t the loving husband he’s always been,’ Miranda said. ‘I honestly believe you can’t hide that type of personality if you have those tendencies.’
Last year, his stepfather, David Rossi – an Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator – revealed an old photograph of a floppy-haired teenager on a motorcycle, who, despite lacking a breathing aide and looking many pounds lighter, bears a striking resemblance to the man in court.
Nicholas Rossi as a child sitting on his stepfather’s motorbike in Providence, Rhode Island
Rossi has maintained he is Arthur Knight, who has never been to the United States, but American prosecutors say he is an American fugitive
The man accused of being Nicholas Rossi has previously attempted to restrict media access to his court proceedings in Edinburgh saying they should be held in contempt of court for ‘continually referring to me as Nicholas Rossi’
Miranda, his third wife, arrives for the hearing at the Edinburgh court in July
In a wide-ranging interview, he described his estranged stepson as ‘the devil’s spawn’ and said he was an ‘evil’ child who punched his mother and grandmother.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘He’ll do anything to hide from the law. The wheelchair, the mask. It’s c**p.
There’s nothing wrong with him. Everything about him is Nicky.
‘My first impression of Nicky was that he had mental problems. He just got worse with every day.
‘He would urinate in his brother’s bed just to get his brother in trouble.
Jump out of windows and run away in his underwear.
‘[Rossi’s mother] Diana said this is why you don’t get involved. But I stuck with it. I felt that they needed a father.’
References
- ^ faked his own death (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Stephen M.
Lepore For Dailymail.Com
(www.dailymail.co.uk) - ^ Associated Press (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ the rape suspect who faked his own death (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Utah (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Crime (www.dailymail.co.uk)