US court told of Nicholas Rossi DNA link to rape case

A US court has been told that DNA from a man extradited from Scotland matches material collected by police investigating an alleged rape in 2008.

Nicholas Rossi, who had faked his own death in the US, spent two years fighting attempts to have him sent to Utah to face rape charges.

Rossi, 37, claimed to authorities in Scotland that he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight and was the victim of mistaken identity.

Provo District Court in Utah heard on Tuesday that a sample of his DNA taken in the Utah County Jail in January matched the sample from 17 years ago.

Rossi was present in court for the hearing.

According to local news sources his defence gave his legal name as Arthur Knight, but agreed to him being called Nicholas Rossi during proceedings.

Lt Karalee Johnson, of Orem police department in Utah, told the court that DNA samples taken in its 2008 rape investigation had been kept in the force's archive.

It was first matched to Rossi in 2018 and again in January after he was sampled on return to the US.

Judge Derek Pullan, of the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse, ruled that there was "probable cause" for a trial to go ahead.

According to KYMU TV in Utah, the judge said: "Based on the facts disclosed today, the statement does find probable cause to believe that the defendant, Nicholas Rossi, committed the offence of rape as charged”.

In US law, "probable cause" means police, prosecutors or the courts think there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed a crime

Rossi is facing two rape allegations, one in Salt Lake County and the other in Utah County.

Tuesday's hearing was the second time he had appeared in court in a week.

On Thursday 22 August a judge sitting in Salt Lake City ruled that prosecution can move forward in Rossi's other rape case.

Rossi is scheduled to appear in court again for a hearing and arraignment on 16 October.

The man known as Nicholas Rossi first came to attention in the UK when he was arrested under an international arrest warrant in December 2021 after being admitted to hospital in Glasgow with Covid.

In 2008 he had been found guilty of sexual imposition and public indecency while a student at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

He served a suspended sentence and had to register as a sex offender for 15 years.

Nine months after that assault, he is alleged to have attacked a former girlfriend, pushing her on to a couch and forcing her to have sex.

Rossi, who was also known as Nicholas Alehverdian in his native Rhode Island, faked his own death in 2020 and fled to Scotland to escape prosecution.

He claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity and insisted his name was Arthur Knight.

But Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi.

The sheriff said he was "as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative".

Scotland's Justice Secretary Angela Constance signed an order approving the decision in September 2023.

Rossi lost his final appeal against being returned from Scotland on in December 2023 and he was extradicted back to the US in January.

At the time, former Utah County attorney, David O Leavitt, welcomed the news that the extradition process had been completed.

He said : "This would not have happened without the amazing co-operation from law enforcement across the world."