Nicholas Rossi went to great lengths to conceal his identity and flee after committing rape in 2008. Photo / Getty Images
Nicholas Rossi went to great lengths to conceal his identity and flee after committing rape in 2008. Photo / Getty Images
An American who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to evade justice was sentenced today to five-years-to-life in prison for raping his ex-girlfriend 17 years ago.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, who potentially could spend the rest of his days behind bars, went to great lengths to conceal hisidentity and flee after committing the rape in the western state of Utah in 2008, authorities said.
State Judge Barry Lawrence pointed to this as an “aggravating factor” as he handed down the sentence in a Salt Lake City court today.
“He is the very definition of a flight risk,” Lawrence said of Rossi.
“He fled the country to avoid investigation, he took on an alias, and even in response to this case, refused to admit who he was.
“I conclude that the only appropriate sentence in this case is to send you to prison,” the judge added.
According to state laws in Utah, where Rossi was convicted in August 2025 of raping his former girlfriend, a judicial commission will decide when he can be released.
He was extradited back to the United States in January 2024.
Rossi faces a second sentencing under another rape conviction in November.
Rossi’s ruses included faking his death under his legal name, Nicholas Alahverdian, and publishing an obituary stating he had died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
While on the run in Europe, Rossi posed as an Irish man when he went to a Glasgow hospital in 2021 to be treated for Covid-19.
Authorities in Utah began searching for Rossi, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit tied to the other case, according to CBS News.
In 2019, Rossi led people around him to believe he was suffering from advanced cancer. Then he published an online obit before disappearing and fleeing to the United Kingdom.
The target of an Interpol notice, Rossi was arrested in October 2021 after he checked into the Scottish hospital.
He claimed to be Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan. However, police and medical staff identified him as Nicholas Rossi because his tattoos matched Interpol’s description.
Throughout the proceedings, he maintained he was the victim of mistaken identity, claiming even that the tattoos were applied without his knowledge while he was unconscious in the hospital.
Nicholas Rossi has insisted he is an Irishman named Arthur Knight. Photo / Getty Images
He also claimed that his fingerprints, taken at the hospital, were swapped to make him appear as the wanted man. During the extradition proceedings, he showed up in an electric wheelchair, wearing an oxygen mask.
However, a doctor ruled there was no medical reason for this, describing the condition of his legs as “strong and athletic.”
