- Nicholas Rossi was reported to be dead in 2020 — but he reappeared in a Scottish hospital in 2021.
- After a lengthy court battle in which Rossi fired his lawyers six times, he lost his case.
- Rossi, 36, has now been extradited to the US to face rape charges in Utah.
An American fugitive who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to avoid rape charges has been extradited to the US.
Nicholas Rossi, 36, disappeared after he was accused of raping a woman in Utah in 2008.
In 2020, reports circulated that Rossi, who also went by the names Nicholas Alahverdian and Arthur Knight, had died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
But in December 2021, Rossi was discovered while receiving treatment for COVID-19 at a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland.
Rossi was going by Arthur Knight at the time, and he claimed to be an Irish orphan.
But the Edinburgh Sheriff Court ruled that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi.
After his arrest, Rossi continued to claim it was a case of mistaken identity, going through a lengthy legal battle during which time he frequently disrupted court proceedings and fired his lawyers at least six times, The Guardian reported.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen wrote in the extradition ruling that he found Rossi to be “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.”
After losing his final appeal against extradition in December, the BBC reported that Rossi had departed the UK on Friday on a private flight.
Responding to the news, David Leavitt, a former Utah county attorney, said: “Today marks a pivotal moment in the pursuit of justice, as the responsibility shifts to Utah County,” per the BBC.
“This would not have happened without the amazing co-operation from law enforcement across the world,” he added.
Rossi has also been accused multiple times of alleged domestic violence in Rhode Island, The Associated Press reported.
British police are also investigating Rossi in relation to a rape allegation in Essex, England.
