Nicholas Rossi, 35, will now face additional extradition proceedings to find out whether or not he ought to be despatched house to be tried on felony rape fees in Utah, the place he’s wished in reference to a sexual assault in 2008, in line with the Utah Division of Public Security.
“I’m finally happy on the stability of possibilities … that Mr. Knight is certainly Nicholas Rossi, the individual hunted for extradition by the US,” the choose, Norman McFadyen, mentioned, citing fingerprint, tattoo and photographic proof. McFadyen referred to as Rossi’s claims, together with that he’s an Irish-born orphan named Arthur Knight, “implausible” and “fanciful.”
Scottish authorities arrested Rossi, additionally recognized by an alias, Nicholas Alahverdian, in December 2021 after monitoring him to the covid-19 ward of a Glasgow hospital. Staffers there had acknowledged him and his tattoos from an Interpol discover, the Scottish Solar reported.
For the previous 11 months, Rossi, who attended courtroom in a wheelchair, has dragged out the authorized proceedings, firing a number of attorneys, altering his accent and accusing regulation enforcement of torture. He additionally claimed that authorities tried to border him by giving him tattoos just like these of the wished man whereas he was in a coma, in addition to by taking and sending his fingerprints to Interpol.
Earlier than fleeing to the UK, Rossi faked his personal loss of life. In February 2020, simply weeks after the FBI questioned him concerning a fraud case in Ohio, Rossi, who was residing in Rhode Island, posted an obituary on-line that mentioned he died of most cancers.
“His final phrases had been ‘worry not and run towards the bliss of the solar,’” the obituary mentioned, including that his hospital room was “stuffed with the sounds of the tip credit for the 1997 movie ‘Contact’ by composer Alan Silvestri.”
Identified then as Nicholas Alahverdian, a toddler welfare reform advocate, he was honored in loss of life by the Rhode Island legislature, and the mayor of Windfall, the state capital, issued a press release lamenting the lack of a “beloved neighborhood chief.”
A yr later, nonetheless, the Windfall Journal reported that state police didn’t consider he was useless. Now, he’s wished in Rhode Island, accused of failing to register as a intercourse offender.
In Utah, authorities had retested DNA from a 2008 sexual assault package, and outcomes confirmed it matched Rossi’s profile from an identical cost at a neighborhood school in Ohio. The State Bureau of Investigations now says it has recognized Rossi as a suspect in comparable circumstances all through Utah and elsewhere in the US.
On Wednesday, courtroom officers advised Rossi that two extra girls got here ahead with accusations of sexual offenses in Utah in 2008, in line with the Scottish Solar.
In an interview with BBC Scotland, one of many girls who accused Rossi of sexual assault mentioned, “He’s attempting to idiot everyone, and I’m glad so many individuals see by it.”
