Fugitive who faked death may be forced to court

Nicholas Rossi refused to appear at his latest court hearing in the US

A man extradited from Scotland to America after faking his death to avoid rape charges could be forced to attend court, a judge has ruled.

Nicholas Rossi has now refused to appear at two hearings at separate courts in Utah on rape charges.

The 36-year-old spent more than two years fighting the case claiming to be an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight.

The judge set a new date of 8 March and granted an order to use reasonable force to compel Rossi to attend.

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After calling the case on Friday, Judge Barry Lawrence of Utah's Third District Court was told that Rossi had refused to appear by video link from prison.

The hearing was over an allegation of rape in Salt Lake County.

Nicholas Rossi's lawyer Sam Duggan told the court that she was unaware of why he was refusing to appear, but said he suffers from "a variety of fairly serious medical issues that I have heard about from his other attorney."

She told the judge that she did not know as much about his back story as she would like but added that he "goes by Arthur Knight".

Representatives from the state asked the judge to issue an order to use reasonable force to ensure Rossi attends.

The judge agreed but said the order could be removed if his lawyer provides the court with a reason for why the order should not apply.

This followed a separate hearing on Monday in Utah's Fourth District Court over a rape allegation Rossi faces in Utah County.

Judge Derek Pullan of Utah's Fourth District Court was told Rossi would not appear by video link from prison.

A new date of 6 February was set for his appearance. Judge Pullan also told the court that if Rossi was not ill then he would "authorise reasonable force to compel his attendance".

'Mistaken identity'

Rossi 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.

He lost his final appeal against extradition on 14 December last year.

Prosecutors in Utah 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 state's crime lab.

During the previous hearing, he denied being Nicholas Rossi and said his name was Arthur Knight Brown.