A US fugitive who fled to Britain after faking his own death to avoid rape charges has been convicted of sexual assault in America.
Nicholas Rossi, also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, told prosecutors he was Arthur Knight, a disabled English gentleman who had been framed for the crimes of sexual assault against two women.
Last year he was deported from Scotland to Utah in an end to the international manhunt.
On Wednesday, jurors at Salt Lake County Court found Mr Rossi guilty of sexually assaulting his former fiancee after a three-day-long trial.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, and will be sentenced on October 20.
The 38-year-old is also expected to stand trial in September for a second rape charge in Utah County, which is being tried separately.
A US fugitive who fled to Britain after faking his own death to avoid rape charges has been convicted of sexual assault in America
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According to prosecutors, Mr Rossi created an obituary which claimed he had been cremated after a quick death from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer.
He then moved across the Atlantic to allegedly evade arrest on the sexual assault investigations and fraud.
District Attorney at Salt Lake Country, Sim Gill, applauded the “courage and bravery” it took for the victim to “take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable”.
He said: “We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place.
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Mr Rossi was arrested in 2019 in Glasgow after nurses, who were treating him for COVID-19, recognised his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol red notice
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“We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice.”
As the trial progressed, prosecutors made Mr Rossi out to be an intelligent man who took advantage of vulnerable young woman by charming them.
The victim, whose anonymity is protected by law, was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury when she first met Mr Rossi.
She responded to an advert made by Mr Rossi on the classified ads website, Craigslist, and the pair were engaged within two weeks.
She told jurors that she was asked to pay for their dates, and Mr Rossi’s car repairs, as well as lending him £730 so he was not evicted from his apartment, and taking on debt to purchase their engagement rings.
Soon after their engagement, Mr Rossi become hostile and raped her in his bedroom one night in 2008, according to her testimony.
The victim said her parents were dismissive at the time, and she therefore did not go to the police.
However, a decade later when she learned he was accused of another rape in the same year, she came forward.
Mr Rossi has also been accused of attacking the second woman at his apartment in September 2008.
The alleged incident took place when she went to his apartment to collect money which she said he had stolen from her to buy a computer.
When interviewed by police, Mr Rossi said she had raped him and threatened to have him killed.
Mr Rossi has denied all the charges.
