Scottish Court Rules Man Arrested in COVID Ward Is US Fugitive Who Allegedly Faked His Death

Nicholas Rossi, whose aliases include Arthur Knight and Nicholas Alahverdian, leaves Edinburgh Sheriff And Justice Of The Peace Court in Scotland on Nov. 11, 2022. Andrew Milligan/PA Media

A man who was arrested in a Glasgow hospital after catching COVID-19 is a rape suspect wanted by the United States, a Scottish judge ruled on Friday.

The man is also accused of faking his death to avoid prosecution.

Evidence showed that the 35-year-old man, who goes by Arthur Knight, is Nicholas Rossi, who is wanted by the U.S. authorities, Court Sheriff Norman McFadyen told the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, one of the six sheriff courts in Scotland that hear most of the civil and criminal cases.

McFadyen said he was “ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities by the evidence of fingerprint, photographic, and tattoo evidence taken together, supported by the evidence of changes of name, that Mr. Knight is indeed Nicolas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.”

A full hearing on Rossi’s extradition to the United States will now go ahead in Scotland in March, the court heard.

Mungo Bovey KC, defending, requested bail for his client on the grounds he remains accused, and not convicted.

But Sheriff McFadyen rejected the plea “given the flight risk he represents.”

Identification Hearings

The man was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) as Arthur Knight on Dec. 13, 2021, after he fell seriously ill from COVID-19.

He was remanded after Police Scotland officers received an Interpol red notice with photos of Rossi’s face and tattoos and, with the help of medical staff, said they were able to identify the patient.

He was granted bail after appearing via video link at a court hearing on Dec. 23, 2021, on the understanding that he required more treatment, but prosecutors told a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in January that he discharged himself the next day and went home to his address in West End Park Street in Glasgow.

He was re-arrested on Jan. 20 after he missed an extradition hearing.

Utah county attorney David Leavitt said in January of Rossi: “Once we determined that he was in a Scottish hospital then we were able to confirm through photographic confirmation and DNA that we had our man, so to speak,” according to the BBC.

During his identification hearing this week, Rossi, then-identified as Kight, told the Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday that he had never had tattoos prior to being admitted to the QEUH and the tattoos were put on him while he was in a coma.

On Monday, Tenprint Identification Officer (TIO) Lisa Davidson told the court that fingerprints taken from Knight by police in HMP Saughton Prison in July are “identical” to Rossi’s fingerprints on the Interpol red notice and the extradition request.

On Tuesday, another TIO, Anita Vezza, analyzing the same images, said the fingerprints had “similar characteristics on each that were unique to that person.”

But Knight told the court on Tuesday that an NHS worker called “Patrick” took his fingerprints and meddled with the extradition request on behalf of Leavitt.

He also accused Leavitt of transposing the headshots on the Interpol red notice and extradition request.

Rape Charges and Aliases

According to previous updates published by Leavitt’s office, in 2018, a Utah initiative that reviews old sexual assault cases where the original sexual assault kits had not been tested identified a match to the suspect of a 2008 sexual assault case in Ohio. In that case, the suspect was Rossi.

State Bureau of Investigation agents in Utah also connected Rossi to “a number of similar offenses in Utah and throughout the United States after the 2008 incident,” one of the statements said.

Another one said Rossi was facing extradition to “stand trial in Utah County for alleged felony rape charges.”

The statements listed Rossi’s ten aliases including Nicholas Alahverdian, Nicholas Alahverdian Rossi, Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown, Arthur Knight, Arthur Winston Brown, and Arthur Knight Brown.

In a bid to explain his multiple aliases, “Knight,” who denied being Alahverdian or Rossi, told the Edinburgh Sheriff Court that his name changes were a way of helping him detach himself from what he claimed to be a traumatic childhood.

Prosecutor Julie Clark on July 8 told the Glasgow Sheriff Court that the man was known in the United States as Nicholas Rossi or Alahverdian and speaks in an American accent; by his wife’s family as Nicholas Brown and speaks in an Irish accent; and recorded at the QEUH as Arthur Winston Brown and identified himself as Arthur Knight and speaks in an English accent.

“Extensive enquiries established that he travelled to Dublin from the [United States] in 2017 but there was no record of him entering the UK,” Clark said.

She said Rossi was involved in a relationship with a UK national, whose name was not mentioned, before meeting his now wife Miranda Knight.

Miranda Knight, wife of the defendant, leaving a hearing on the extradition of Nicholas Rossi, who claimed to be Arthur Knight, to the United States, at Edinburgh Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Court in Scotland on Nov. 9, 2022. Jane Barlow/PA Media

During a BBC interview of the couple in March, Knight said they were married in Bristol and produced a marriage certificate that said she married Nicholas Brown on Feb. 22, 2020.

Miranda, who believes her husband was an orphan from Ireland, also gave evidence in court, but her evidence was dismissed by the sheriff on the grounds it was all information given to her by Rossi himself.

Miranda previously told Sky News that her husband, who she refers to as “Arthur,” shows “love” and “patience” and there were never any abuses in their relationship.

Her brother Kevin Knight, who was the best man at the couple’s wedding, told the Daily Record that he got to know Rossi as a man “with a thick Irish accent and called himself Nicholas Brown.”

Kevin said Rossi was “very polite, a caring person, a church person, the whole ­charade was perfect” but he never spoke of his family.

Alleged Fake Death

On Jan. 21, prosecutors told the court that in 2020, an anonymous email was sent to Rhode Island Media indicating that Nicholas Alahverdian, one of the aliases of Rossi, had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that he had been cremated and buried at sea.

In 2020, multiple news media, including The Associated Press, reported that Alahverdian, who “grew up in foster care and went on to become a vocal critic of Rhode Island’s child care system,” had died after an obituary published on Feb. 29 said he lost a two-month battle against non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The obituary quoted homage from Rhode Island politicians and said Alahverdian’s body was “cremated with his ashes scattered at sea.”

Sky News also said a person purporting to be Alahverdian’s widow called Father Bernard Healy, a Rhode Island Catholic pastor, to request a memorial mass.

Healy was going to agree with the request, but “then a detective said to me he thought it was Nicholas using a voice disguiser,” he told the broadcaster.

PA Media contributed to this report.