Nicholas Rossi to be extradited to US on rape charges

Scotland's justice secretary has confirmed that the extradition of the American fugitive Nicholas Rossi can go ahead.

Angela Constance signed the extradition order last week after a court ruled in August there was no legal barrier to Rossi being sent back to the United States to face rape charges.

He was arrested on the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital in December 2021.

The 36-year-old has since claimed to be the victim of mistaken identity.

The convicted sex offender, who is originally from Rhode Island, said he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight.

However, last November, Sheriff Norman McFadyen ruled that he was Nicholas Rossi and not Arthur Knight, as he repeatedly claimed.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how his fingerprints and distinctive tattoos matched those of the fugitive.

Despite the ruling, Rossi maintained he was the victim of mistaken identity - and said he had been tattooed while he was lying unconscious in hospital in an attempt to frame him.

He returned to the court in June this year for his extradition hearing.

Authorities in the US have said Rossi was known by several aliases, including Nicholas Alahverdian.

In his extradition ruling, Sheriff McFadyen described Rossi as "dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative".

Mr Bovey urged the court to refuse extradition of his client or adjourn proceedings to allow fuller investigation of Rossi's mental health.

But three medical witnesses said Rossi showed no signs of acute mental illness and a GP at Saughton also cast doubt on the state of his health in general.

The sheriff ruled that he could be legally extradited to Utah in August, and the justice secretary had the final say.

He has two weeks to appeal the decision.

Separately, detectives in Essex want to interview Rossi in connection with an allegation of rape dating back to 2017.

In December 2019 he told media in his home state that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live.

Several news outlets in Rhode Island reported that he had died in February 2020.

However, less than two years later, Rossi - who was the subject of an Interpol wanted notice - turned up on a hospital ward in Glasgow during the pandemic.

He was being treated for Covid-19 when he was arrested at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on 13 December 2021.

Watch Now on BBC iPlayer: Unmasking A Fugitive - The story of Nicholas Rossi, the US fugitive who came to the UK with a new identity