Since he is wanted in connection with the rape of a 21-year-old woman, authorities have been attempting to bring him back to the US for a number of years.
A few weeks ago, Nicholas Rossi was flown out of the United Kingdom following a protracted legal dispute in which he maintained that he was the victim of mistaken identity.
In addition to accusing him of raping a woman in 2008, US officials claim he staged his own demise and organized a memorial service before escaping to the UK.
Rossi addressed the judge as “m’lady” and described accusations that he wasn’t providing his true name as “complete hearsay” while speaking in a Utah court on Tuesday with what appeared to be an English accent.
He breathed heavily through an oxygen mask and spoke in a labored, breathy tone, claiming to be Arthur Knight Brown.
In contrast to US convention, Rossi provided his birthdate in British format, stating the day of birth first and then the month.
When the 36-year-old was hospitalized in Glasgow in December 2021 due to COVID-19 illness, someone noticed him and led to his initial arrest.
A year later, the Edinburgh Sheriff Court declared that his fingerprints and tattoos matched those of Rossi, who was wanted by Interpol.
Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan who had never been to America and suggested they had been done by an NHS employee while he was unconscious in an attempt to frame him.
But it turned out that he had created a number of false narratives to avoid prosecution and had changed his name four times in just three years.
Rossi informed the Rhode Island media four years ago that he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma and only had a few weeks to live. Later, an online obituary stated that he passed away on February 29, 2020.
In the course of the several-year Scottish legal battle, Rossi fired his attorneys and represented himself, showing up in court in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask.
Approved the extradition last summer, Judge Norman McFadyen described him as “as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative”.
He was ultimately transported to the US at the beginning of this month after losing an appeal in December.
Rossi was not granted bail and will next appear in court in Utah on January 26.
