Nicholas Rossi aka Arthur Knight: Rape suspect on the run arrested as he battles Covid-19 pneumonitis
EDINBURGH, UK: A court in Scotland in its hearing confirmed that Nicholas Rossi is the same person who is being wanted by the US authorities for a sexual assault case. An Edinburgh judge, Sheriff Norman McFadyen, in his ruling on Friday, November 11, found that the 35-year-old accused is on the run for raping a 21-year-old Utah woman in 2008.
The news was reported by the talk radio station Leading Britain’s Conversation which informed that he fled the US to Scotland and changed his name to Arthur Knight. The Scottish police took him in from Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow where he was getting treatment for Covid-19 pneumonitis. Some of the workers referred to him as "the sickest patient on the ward." The accused claimed that he is being framed by the US authorities. He further alleged his name was Arthur Knight and that he was a tutor and Irish orphan who has never been to the US.
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In a BBC report, Judge 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 further claimed that the hospital tried to send him into a coma and put a similar tattoo on him as the fugitive. He told the court that a NHS employee named "Patrick" in the hospital took his fingerprint while trying to help the US officials, according to LBC. The judge also pressed that his name change was "highly suspicious" and "consistent with someone who was hiding from someone or something."
The FBl alerted police in Scotland after it circulated photographs of Rossi and the tattoos he had on his body. This was immediately recognized by medical staff and police, triggering his arrest. The alleged victim of the sexual assault in 2008, known as Mary said to BBC, "He is trying to fool everybody and I'm glad so many people see through it." Interestingly, as per an Associated Press report, the US authorities claim even the name Rossi is an alias from a man named Nicholas Alahverdian, charged in relation to a 2008 rape in Utah, reports People.
The report further alleged that Rhode Island officials have been on the lookout for him since he failed to register as a sex offender, even in fraud charges, the police are seeking him in Ohio, where he was held for the 2008 rape charge. Alahverdian had claimed in 2020 that due to the severity of his non-Hodgkin lymphoma condition, he would be dead within weeks. Further, an obituary was posted on February 29, 2020, in his remembrance. But that didn’t convince Alahverdian’s foster family, Rhode Island police, or Alahverdian’s previous lawyer that he was dead.
The hearing on Rossi's extradition process will start in March 2023, reported the Associated Press. He is also denied bail as Judge McFadyen considered him a flight risk.