![\"Nicholas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Nicholas-Rossi-extradition-hearing.jpg\")
Nicholas Rossi (Image: PA)<\/p>\nNicholas Rossi is standing trial in the US accused of raping a woman he dated in 2008.<\/p>\n
18:47, 11 Aug 2025Updated 23:12, 11 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
Nicholas Rossi (Image: PA)<\/p>\n
Fugitive Nicholas Rossi, who was extradited from Scotland while claiming he was the victim of mistaken identity, is standing trial for rape in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rossi, who faked his own death in 2020, is accused of raping<\/a> a woman he dated in 2008 in Utah County, reports the BBC.<\/p>\n He faces a separate allegation of rape also from 2008 in the neighbouring Salt Lake County. Rossi denies all charges.<\/a><\/p>\n Today, he appeared in court<\/a>, going by his other name – Nicholas Alahverdian.<\/p>\n After discussions on a plea deal were not “fruitful”, the trial<\/a> was scheduled by Judge Derek Pullan.<\/p>\n Rossi was arrested<\/a> in the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital in 2021 after staff recognised his mugshot and distinctive tattoos from an Interpol wanted notice.<\/p>\n He claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish-born orphan who had never been to America, and he had been victim<\/a> of mistaken identity.<\/p>\n In January last year, Rossi was finally extradited<\/a> to the US after more than a year since he was ruled to be Nicholas Rossi in Scottish courts.<\/p>\n Rossi was born Nicholas Alahverdian in 1987. Rossi was the name of his stepfather, who at the time was a popular Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n He spent time in care as a teen and later became a child welfare campaigner. Politicians paid tribute to him on the floor of the Rhode Island State House in 2020 when reports of his death<\/a> emerged.<\/p>\n However, a priest who had been asked to arrange a memorial mass was warned by a detective<\/a> not to go ahead because “Nicholas isn’t dead”.<\/p>\n Rossi, who fled after discovering that the FBI<\/a> were investigating an alleged credit card fraud, was suspected to be in the UK.<\/p>\n He married his wife Miranda in Bristol that same year. His online footprint would eventually lead police<\/a> to his Glasgow hospital bedside, where he was recovering from a near-death experience with Covid.<\/p>\n Rossi appeared in court<\/a> in Scotland maintaining his claim of mistaken identity while in a wheelchair, wearing a three-piece suit and an oxygen mask.<\/p>\n He insisted his tattoos were given to him while he lay unconscious in the Glasgow hospital in an attempt to frame<\/a> him. It was eventually ruled he was Nicholas Rossi and that his mistaken identity claim was “implausible” and fanciful”.<\/p>\n Scotland’s justice secretary signed an order granting Rossi’s extradition to the US in September 2023. He was flown back to America in January 2024 after losing his final appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last October, during a bail hearing <\/a>in Salt Lake City, Rossi admitted for the first time that he and the alias Arthur Knight were the same person.<\/p>\n He claimed he left the country and later used the alias in order to escape threats<\/a> after denying fleeing to the UK to escape arrest.<\/p>\n Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.<\/p>\n You’ll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.<\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.<\/p>\n![\"Nicholas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Untitled-design-51.png\")
Nicholas Rossi was extradited from Scotland in January 2024.<\/p>\n![\"Nicholas](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2_JS271848519.jpg\")
Nicholas Rossi at Edinburgh Sheriff And Justice Of The Peace Court(Image: PA)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_WACOMMUNITYQR3.jpg\")
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