Nicholas Rossi, who is also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, was jailed for five years on Monday after he was convicted of raping two women in 2008
A sex offender who apparently staged his own death and fled the United States to dodge justice has finally been locked up.
American Nicholas Rossi, who bizarrely insisted he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight, has been handed a five-year jail term for his despicable crimes.
Nicholas Rossi has steadfastly maintained his innocence in the 17 years since he sexually attacked two women, even implying before his sentencing yesterday that the victims were making up their accounts.
He was eventually nabbed in Scotland, 13 years after the assaults, having done a runner from the US.
An online obituary had previously stated that Rossi had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer, just months before his arrest, reports the Express.
However, Rossi, aged 38, was ultimately caged for five years yesterday after District Judge Barry Lawrence, sitting in Salt Lake City, Utah, heard about the “trail of fear, pain and destruction” he left behind following the attacks in the state in 2008.
One of the survivors, giving evidence in court, stated: “This is not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal.”
Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Brandon Simmons told the court that Rossi, who has endured three failed marriages, “uses rape to control women” and posed a threat to community safety. Rossi chose not to give evidence in his own defence during the trial proceedings.
When given the chance to address the court before sentencing on Monday, Rossi maintained his claims of innocence.
Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, stated: “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
The accused was convicted and jailed for one of the assaults, with sentencing for the second rape, which also took place in Utah in 2008, scheduled for 4 November.
More than a decade passed between the time of the sexual assaults and his convictions. The search for Rossi commenced in 2018 when Utah officials identified him through a decade-old DNA rape kit connected to the separate case.
He was amongst thousands of rape suspects who were identified and later charged as Utah worked to eliminate its backlog of rape kits. Months following his charging in that matter, an online death notice claimed Rossi had passed away, but officers in his native Rhode Island, alongside his former solicitor and a past foster family, questioned whether he had genuinely died.
Rossi was apprehended in Scotland the subsequent year whilst undergoing treatment for COVID-19, after medical staff recognised his distinctive tattoos – including Brown University’s emblem on his shoulder, despite never being a student there – from an Interpol alert.
After a protracted legal battle, he was extradited to Utah in January 2024. At that time, Rossi claimed he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight who was being set up.
Investigators have stated that they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.
In his initial Utah trial, Rossi’s public defender refuted the rape allegation and urged jurors not to infer too much from his move abroad. Despite this, the jury found Rossi guilty of the rape charge for which he was sentenced on Monday.
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