A man threatened with extradition to the United States where he is accused of rape and sexual assault, but who claimed to be the victim of mistaken identity, was identified by British justice on Friday as the suspect sought, betrayed by his tattoos.
The 35-year-old man, who claimed for months to be called Arthur Knight and to be an orphan born in Ireland, is indeed Nicholas Rossi, an American wanted in the United States as part of an investigation into the rape of a wife in Utah and other sexual assaults, an Edinburgh court has ruled.
“Mr. Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person wanted for extradition by the United States, ”said Judge Norman McFayden in rendering his decision, highlighting the evidence provided during the proceedings.
He is suspected of faking his death in the United States and fleeing to Scotland to avoid prosecution.
He had been arrested in October 2021 when he had COVID-19 and went to a hospital in Glasgow. Police and carers had identified him as Nicholas Rossi because his tattoos matched the description of the man on Interpol’s wanted list.
But since then, he formally denied being Nicholas Rossi, going so far as to claim that the tattoos had been done to him without his knowledge while he was unconscious in hospital. He also said that his fingerprints, taken at the hospital, had been exchanged with those of Rossi in order to pass him off as the wanted man.
His explanations are “improbable and fanciful”, Judge Norman McFayden said during the proceedings, adding that these repeated changes of identity are the behavior “of a person hiding from someone or something”.