Nicholas Rossi had fled justice for 17 years after raping two women in Utah, US, but his past caught up with him and a judge jailed the sex fiend in Salt Lake City on Monday
23:38, 20 Oct 2025
Nicholas Rossi appeared to fake his own death(Image: AP)
A rapist who appeared to fake his death and flee the United States to avoid arrest has finally been jailed.
Nicholas Rossi has maintained his innocence in the 17 years since he raped two women, even suggesting before sentencing yesterday the victims were lying. He was eventually arrested in Scotland, 13 years after the attacks, after fleeing the US for the nation. Some months prior to his arrest, an online obituary claimed Rossi died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer.
But Rossi, 38, was finally caged yesterday for five years after District Judge Barry Lawrence, sitting in Salt Lake City, Utah, heard of the “trail of fear, pain and destruction” left behind him following the attacks in the state in 2008. Giving evidence in court, one of the survivors said: “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 Rossi, who has had three failed marriages, “uses rape to control women” and posed a risk to community safety.
Pictured in 2023, Rossi is snapped leaving a court in Edinburgh after an extradition hearing(Image: PA)
Rossi did not testify on his own behalf at his trial. Given a chance to speak before being sentenced Monday, Rossi maintained his innocence. Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, said: “I am not guilty of this. These women are lying.”
But the defendant was convicted and jailed for one of the attacks. He will be sentenced for the other rape, which also happened in 2008 in Utah, on November 4.
It took more than a decade from the time of the rapes to his convictions. Utah authorities began searching for Rossi when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit tied to the other case.
He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.Months after he was charged in that case, an online obituary claimed Rossi died but police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, casted doubt on whether he was dead.
He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for Covid-19 after hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos – including the crest of Brown University inked on his shoulder, although he never attended – from an Interpol notice.
He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a protracted court battle. At the time, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.
In his first Utah trial, Rossi’s public defender denied the rape claim and urged jurors not to read too much into his move overseas. Even so, the jury convicted Rossi of the rape charge for which he was sentenced Monday.
