Nicholas Rossi: Fugitive who faked death appears in US court
- Published
Nicholas Rossi appeared by video link at the Third District Court in Utah.
A man who faked his death and fled from the US to Scotland has appeared in court in Utah, where he is charged with raping a woman more than 15 years ago.
Nicholas Rossi, 36, had fought against extradition and claimed to be an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight.
On Tuesday, he appeared by video link at the Third District Court in Utah.
He denied that he was the suspect and described the suggestion that he was not giving his true name as "complete hearsay".
Rossi - also known in the US as Nicholas Alahverdian - was extradited to the US earlier this month after a lengthy legal battle.
He was arrested under an international arrest warrant in December 2021 after being admitted to hospital in Glasgow with Covid.
He claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity and insisted his name was Arthur Knight.
But in November 2022 a sheriff in Edinburgh ruled that he was Nicholas Rossi after hearing that his tattoos and fingerprints matched.
A sheriff ruled in November 2022 that the man arrested in Scotland was Nicholas Rossi
Rossi lost his final appeal against extradition on 14 December last year.
On Tuesday he appeared in court in Utah, where prosecutors said he was charged with raping a 21-year-old woman in 2008.
Rossi was not identified as a suspect until about a decade later due to a backlog of DNA test kits at the Utah State Crime Lab.
During the hearing he denied being Nicholas Rossi and said his name was Arthur Knight Brown.
State attorney Tamara Basquez told Judge Kimberly Hornak that he had been extradited and had not admitted his name or date of birth accurately.
Rossi claimed this was "complete hearsay" before being cut off by the judge.
The next hearing in the case is due to take place later in January.