Who is Arthur Knight? FBI fugitive who FAKED death to avoid rape charges claims he is ‘coughing up blood’ in prison
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND: A 35-year-old man Arthur Knight, an alleged FBI fugitive, who has been accused of impersonating his own death and fleeing to Scotland to avoid a rape charge in the United States, claims to be struggling in Scotland prison. The US prosecutors, however, say he is rape suspect Nicholas Rossi. He emerged via video link at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, August 18, wearing an oxygen mask and in a wheelchair, in the latest stage of his judicial battle.
Rossi's lawyer Ross Jenkins told Sheriff Kenneth Maciver that his client, who is in HMP Edinburgh, had requested him to communicate concerns about ''his physical and mental well-being", DailyMail reported. He went on to say that his client had been ''coughing up blood,'' and that the defendant felt he needed 'urgent medical attention,' which he had been denied in prison.
RELATED ARTICLES
Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian: LA fugitives left 3 children behind and fled with dog
Who is Ruja Ignatova? Only woman on FBI Most Wanted list could be hiding in Mediterranean
Jenkins also told the court that his client was ''constantly referred to as another person,'' which the 35-year-old denies. To avoid a rape charge, the man is said to have fled to Scotland and faked his own death. Prosecutors in Utah have accused the man of raping a 21-year-old woman in 2008, and he is also accused of assaulting women elsewhere in the United States.
However, the man claims to be a victim of mistaken identity and has never visited America. The man's wife attended the hearing and sat in the back of the court, listening to how the court hearings against him would proceed. The case, according to Edinburgh Sheriff Court, needed more work before it could proceed further.
Sheriff Maciver remanded the man in custody until his next court appearance on September 1. It comes after the court was informed earlier this month that the man, who had previously represented himself, had instructed an attorney to take on the case. ''The health and wellbeing of those who live in our establishments is of paramount importance,'' said a spokesperson for the Scottish Prison Service. ''However, we do not comment on individual prisoners.''
The hospital assault
The accused FBI Fugitive in a wheelchair was also convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court of threatening and abusing patients at the city's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) last month. A consultant told how she was "utterly terrified" when "Arthur Knight" leaped from his hospital bed and ran towards her. Dr Evelyn Miller, 58, told Sky News that she and a female colleague fled the room as he chased them, yelling and cursing.
Court papers at Glasgow Sheriff Court list him as "Arthur Knight, also known as Nicholas Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Winston Brown and Arthur Knight Brown". Dr Millar, a respiratory consultant, testified in court that she knew him as Arthur Knight Brown. On July 5, she entered his ward at the QEUH with senior charge nurse Yasmin Bagli, 27, and found him in bed.
He made it clear that he was dissatisfied with his care and intended to have him medically discharged. "He became very angry, very quickly," Dr Millar said. "His voice became louder, the tone and language became aggressive and then he jumped off the bed." "There's a bedside table. He pushed that out of the way. He came off the bed at a very rapid speed towards us. He was shouting aggressively and using the F-word".
The accused testified in his own defense, telling the court that he was an ancient civilization scholar and author. According to his account, the hospital staff told him "you're not worth speaking to" and walked away. He claimed he pushed himself to the edge of the bed and slid down onto the floor with his elbows. Sheriff Joseph Platt convicted the accused and fined him £400.