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Rapist who faked death and fled to Scotland dies in US prison
BBC • • general
Key Points:
- Nicholas Rossi, an American convicted rapist who faked his death and fled to Scotland to evade justice, died in a US hospital on June 25, 2026, after choosing to remove himself from medical care.
- Rossi was serving a sentence of 10 years to life for raping two women in Utah in 2008, with convictions secured in separate trials in 2024.
- He was arrested in 2021 in a Glasgow hospital Covid ward after staff recognized his tattoos and mugshot from an Interpol notice, despite his claims of being an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.
- Rossi maintained his innocence and claimed mistaken identity throughout multiple court hearings in Scotland, but was extradited to the US in January 2024.
- Salt Lake County Attorney Sim Gill described Rossi as a "sexual predator" who died in prison with accountability for his crimes, providing some consolation to the survivors.
