Fugitive Nicholas Rossi guilty of rape after extradition to US
Rossi, who had previously been joking with his legal team, showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.The court had heard from the woman Rossi raped in Salt Lake County - referred to as MS.She said they met online initially, began dating and were engaged after two weeks.She said Rossi's behaviour soon changed, that he became controlling, borrowed money from her, would not let her drive her own car and criticised her clothing.The court heard the woman decided to end the relationship, at which point Rossi pushed her on the bed at his apartment and raped her.The defence claimed the case was like a "puzzle from a thrift shop" as it has pieces missing and there is not a complete picture.
They claimed MS was resentful after losing money on the engagement rings and only spoke of the rape allegation after seeing Rossi in the news 13 years later.The court then heard from the woman Rossi is accused of raping at his apartment in Orem, Utah County, who appeared as a witness in the current case - referred to as KP.KP said she met Rossi on social networking site MySpace in August 2008, when she was 21, and they began a short relationship.She told the court on one occasion, she woke up at Rossi's apartment to find he had spent up to $400 (£296) on a computer using her credit card details without permission.Rossi said he would pay her back but, after the relationship ended, admitted he did not have the money.She said he then began performing a sex act on himself and when she tried to leave, Rossi pulled her clothing down and pinned her to a couch or other piece of furniture before raping her.
Who is Nicholas Rossi?
Nicholas Rossi was born Nicholas Alahverdian in 1987 - Rossi was the name of his stepfather.Under investigation for rape and credit card fraud, he faked his own death in 2020 and fled the US in attempt to escape justice. Authorities suspected he was somewhere in the UK.That same year, Rossi married his wife Miranda in Bristol.He caught the attention of the British press in December 2021 when he was arrested in the Covid ward of a hospital in Glasgow.Staff had recognised his mugshot and distinctive tattoos from an Interpol wanted notice - but Rossi claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity and that his name was Arthur Knight, an Irish-born orphan who had never been to the US.
Legal proceedings began, but dragged on largely due to Rossi's antics.He made a series of court appearances in a wheelchair, wearing a three-piece suit and an oxygen mask, maintaining his claim of mistaken identity.Rossi insisted that he had been given his distinctive tattoos while he was lying unconscious in the Glasgow hospital in an attempt to frame him.When asked by journalists, he has been unable to provide a birth certificate or passport.He sacked several lawyers before a sheriff ruled he was Nicholas Rossi, and that his mistaken identity claim was "implausible" and fanciful".An order granting Rossi's extradition to the US was signed by Scotland's justice secretary in September 2023, and he was flown back to the US in January 2024 after losing his final appeal.During a bail hearing in Salt Lake City last October, Rossi admitted for the first time that he and the alias Arthur Knight were the same person.He denied fleeing to the UK to escape arrest, claiming that he had left the country and later used the alias in order to escape threats.
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Rossi introduced himself as Nick Alahverdian and claimed to be a Harvard-educated intellectual whose passions included literature, fashion and fine dining. However, his charm vanished almost immediately after Michelle welcomed him into her home. Having presented himself as a successful political lobbyist, he revealed he was actually penniless, and ordered her to buy him an iPhone and other expensive items. 'He wanted cash. Lots of it,' she said. He exerted complete control over her life, telling her where she could and could not go and ordering her to wear dresses and skirts at all times. She claimed Rossi inserted a tracking device into her phone and her ordeal culminated, she alleges, when he forced himself on her in her bedroom. She said she froze while he raped her. She threw him out and reported the assault to the authorities. Essex police opened an investigation but the CPS has now concluded that there is insufficient evidence to secure a conviction. 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I am deeply concerned for other rape survivors in England who are fighting for justice and are reliant on receiving support from the CPS.' • Nicholas Rossi: the many faces of a fugitive who faked his own death The similarities between the two cases, involving women who have never met or corresponded, appear striking. Anthea* responded to an online dating advert that Rossi posted in 2008 where he declared himself to be a 'cultured artistic scarf-wearing bibliophile' who was seeking a 'female counterpart'. The amateur ballet dancer, then 24, was thrilled when she received a succession of articulate missives suggesting they should start a new life together. 'He was very charming and seemed very interested in university, politics and music,' she said. Anthea introduced him to her parents, who heard Rossi, then 21, boast that he had studied at an Ivy League university in America, had a distinguished military career and worked as venture capitalist. 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'On six to eight occasions she forcibly held me down and kissed me,' he said in a statement from 2008, which was retrieved by the Orem Police Department. 'She would wear lingerie and I would tell her to get off of me.' A jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict after eight hours of deliberations. Anthea was embraced by a female friend who had sat next to her, offering tissues and words of encouragement, throughout the trial. Before his extradition to America, Rossi had turned previous hearings in Scotland into theatres of the absurd, giving evidence wearing purple pyjamas, slippers and a silk dressing gown. He had feigned illness, erupted in volcanic outbursts, and sacked his legal team while they attempted to defend him. At one point — forgetting that he had given evidence that he was unable to walk — he leapt from his wheelchair. With a straight face, at an extradition hearing in Edinburgh, he insisted that his tattoos, which matched those of the man wanted by Interpol, were inked on to his arms while he was in a coma in a Glasgow hospital as part of an attempt to frame him. Yet in Utah, Rossi, clad soberly in a business suit and dark tie, remained silent and impassive as the verdict, which may result in him being incarcerated for life, was announced. He will learn his fate at a sentencing hearing on October 20. The CPS has been contacted for comment. *Names have been changed to protect the anonymity of the women, who cannot be named for legal reasons
