Fugitive rape suspect Nicholas Rossi WILL be extradited to the US: Scots ministers sign order to send back wanted American accused of sex offences who allegedly faked his own death and fled to Britain in bid to avoid prosecution
Scottish ministers have signed an extradition order to enable rape suspect Nicholas Rossi to be extradited to the United States, the Scottish Government has confirmed.
MailOnline revealed in August that lawyers for the American fugitive rape suspect who said he was an Irish orphan after fleeing to the UK to avoid prosecution received more than £40,000 from British taxpayers to fight extradition.
Nicholas Rossi, branded ‘as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative’ by a sheriff as he was tried in Scotland, is wanted by authorities in Utah for allegedly raping a woman in 2008. He also faces accusations of domestic violence.
The 36-year-old – born Nicholas Alahverdian before changing his surname to that of his adoptive stepfather, David Rossi – claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in late 2019 and told friends he was dying.
Nicholas Rossi leaves Edinburgh Sheriff Court after his extradition hearing, on June 30
Rossi (pictured in July last year) has claimed this is a case of false identity and said he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight
An obituary appeared online for Rossi in early 2020 saying he had died and that his ashes had been scattered at sea.
But the following year he was arrested on a Covid hospital ward in Scotland, where he was registered as Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan, which he continues to insist is his real identity, claiming to have never set foot on American soil.
It was then ruled that the fugitive – who appeared throughout his court dates in a wheelchair, using an oxygen mask – is indeed Rossi after he was identified through DNA and distinctive tattoos, which were described in an Interpol alert.
He also spoke with an unconvincing accent in a notorious interview with NBC’s Dateline, in which he angrily denied his name was Rossi or Alahverdian, and theatrically collapsed into his wife’s arms after trying to stand in a bizarre effort to prove he could not walk.
Nicholas Rossi (pictured leaving court in July) is wanted by authorities in Utah for allegedly raping a woman in 2008
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