American man who faked his death and fled to Scotland to avoid rape charges jailed
Nicholas Rossi, who claimed his name was ‘Arthur Knight’ in an effort to avoid being extradited to the US, has now faced his alleged victim in a Utah court.
An American man who faked his death and fled to Scotland to evade a rape charge has been jailed for at least five years.
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Rossi, 38, was accused of raping the woman in 2008. He faces a separate rape charge in neighbouring Salt Lake County.
The sentence handed down is the first of two he faces after being convicted separately in August and September.
He is due to be sentenced for the second conviction in November.
During the three-day trial in August, Rossi's victim and her parents took the stand and told the court he left a "trail of fear, pain and destruction" behind him.
"This is not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal," she said.
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Meanwhile, the prosecutor in the case said Rossi "uses rape to control women" and posed a risk to community safety.
Rossi faked his death in 2020 and was extradited from Scotland to the US in January 2024 after a lengthy case in the Scottish courts.
He came to the attention of authorities when he was identified at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow in December 2021 while being treated for Covid-19 under the name Arthur Knight.
He was arrested after being identified by his distinctive tattoos as a person the US authorities wanted to extradite, but claimed this was a case of mistaken identity.
Months of court proceedings in Edinburgh followed but in November 2022, Sheriff Norman McFadyen determined the man claiming to be Knight was indeed Rossi.
An extradition hearing took place in June 2023, with Sheriff McFadyen ruling there was no barrier to Rossi's extradition.
In his Scottish hearings, Rossi would appear in a wheelchair and sometimes with an oxygen mask.
An extradition warrant was signed in September 2023 and Rossi was finally sent to the US in January 2024.
Prosecutors in the US say they have identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture, including ‘Arthur Knight’.