Nicholas Rossi: Man accused of faking death and fleeing to UK to avoid rape case faces US trial

A man accused of faking his own death and fleeing the US to avoid rape charges is to stand trial, a judge in Utah has ruled.

Nicholas Rossi was extradited from Scotland to the US in January after a lengthy case in the Scottish courts.

District Judge Barry Lawrence ruled during Rossi’s preliminary hearing in Utah that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to warrant a jury trial, KTVX-TV reported.

Prosecutors say Rossi, 37, raped a 26-year-old former girlfriend after an argument in Salt Lake County in 2008.

In a separate case, he is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, that same year. He was not identified as a suspect for about a decade due to a backlog of DNA tests at the Utah State Crime Lab.

Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, has used several aliases and has said he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who had never set foot on US soil and was being framed.

The American fugitive grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned to the state before allegedly faking his death and fleeing the country.

An obituary published online claimed Rossi died on February 29, 2020 of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Authorities and his former foster family doubted his death.

Rossi was arrested in Scotland in 2021 after being recognised at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow during treatment for Covid-19.

He lost an extradition appeal in Scotland in December.

Utah County court documents show that Rossi is also accused of sexual assault, harassment and possible kidnapping in Rhode Island, Ohio and Massachusetts, KTVX-TV reported.