A man arrested in a Scottish hospital last year is US fugitive Nicholas Rossi, a court has ruled. The man had claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity, and insisted his name was Arthur Knight. But Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi. Authorities in the US are seeking Rossi’s extradition over allegations of rape and sexual assault.
It is alleged that he faked his own death and fled to Scotland to escape prosecution. He had spent the past year insisting that he was Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland who had never been to the US. He claimed that he had been given distinctive tattoos matching those on the arms of Rossi while he was lying unconscious in a Glasgow hospital in an attempt to frame him. But after a three-day hearing, Sheriff Norman McFadyen said: “I am ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Mr Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.”
Rossi was arrested by Police Scotland last year after staff at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital recognised his tattoos – images of which had been circulated by Interpol – while he was being treated for Covid. Fingerprint expert Lisa Davidson told the court that prints taken from the man claiming to be Arthur Knight after his arrest were identical to those of Rossi, which were included on a US extradition request and the Interpol red notice.
Authorities in the US have said that Rossi was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian in the state of Rhode Island, where he was involved in local politics and was a critic of the state’s child welfare system. Rossi 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. Court records showed that Utah officials were looking for him at the time in connection with an alleged rape. When he was arrested in Glasgow he was also on the run from authorities in other US states. He used several other aliases, including Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight. The FBI also had a warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding his foster father by taking out credit cards in his name and running up debts of more than $200,000.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63568949