An American fugitive who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to avoid rape charges has been given a sentence of five years to life.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, was described as ‘a serial abuser of women’ and ‘the very definition of a flight risk’ by the judge in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He spent years on the run after the attack on a former girlfriend there in 2008.
Rossi was finally caught when staff at a Glasgow hospital recognised him from a police ‘wanted’ notice as he was receiving treatment for Covid in 2021.
It was the first of two sentences handed to Rossi, who was found guilty of a second rape charge in September.
Both offences took place in northern Utah in 2008.
Rossi will be sentenced for the second conviction in November.
His first sentence will be carried out at the Utah State Correctional Facility and will begin immediately.
His victim, who gave evidence in his trial, was praised for her ‘courage in confronting [Rossi] years after the attack took place’.
She told the court Rossi had left a ‘trail of fear, pain and destruction’ behind him.
‘This is not a plea for vengeance,’ she said. ‘This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal.’
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Rossi – who appeared in court in a wheelchair and using an oxygen tank – declined to testify on his own behalf.
Given a chance to speak at his sentencing, he maintained his innocence.
Speaking in a soft, raspy voice, he said: ‘I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.’
Utah authorities began searching for Rossi when he was identified through a decade-old DNA rape kit in 2018.
After he was charged, he faked his death in 2020 with an online obituary claiming he had succumbed to late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
He had been living in Bristol for some time before then, but the exact date when he left the US for the UK is unclear.
But police in his home state of Rhode Island suspected he had fled to Britain.
The same year, Rossi married Miranda Knight in Bristol and the pair moved to Glasgow.
He caught the attention of the UK press in December 2021 when he was arrested in a Covid ward.
Police were called after staff at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital recognised his mugshot and distinctive tattoos from an Interpol notice.
Rossi insisted he was the victim of mistaken identity and that he was an Irish-born orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed and had never been to the US.
However, an Edinburgh court in 2022 determined he was Rossi, an extradition warrant was signed, and he was finally sent to the US in January 2024.
Investigators identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi – who appeared in court under his legal name, Nicholas Alahverdian – used over the years to evade capture.
In his trial, prosecutors painted a picture of an intelligent man who took advantage of a vulnerable young woman.
She was recovering from a brain injury when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist in 2008.
They began dating and were engaged after two weeks.
The woman – referred to as MS – described how he became controlling, borrowed money from her and criticised her clothes.
When she told him she was ending the relationship, he raped her in his apartment.
She went to the police a decade later after she saw him in the news and learned he was accused of another rape from the same year.
The court also heard from the woman Rossi is accused of raping in Utah County.
Appearing as a witness, the woman – referred to as KP – said he raped her at his flat after they met on social network MySpace and began a short relationship.
The sentencing for his second rape conviction will take place on November 4.
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