Rapist, Fugitive & Fraud? Is 'Arthur Knight' Really Nicholas Rossi?

[ramonmercado]

A strange one, looks as if he may well be the fugitive though.

It is a bizarre case that has been making international headlines. A man was arrested on a Covid ward in a Glasgow hospital and accused by the US authorities of being a fugitive who faked his own death to evade justice.

They say Nicholas Rossi is suspected of a number of sexual assaults and is wanted to face a rape charge in the state of Utah.
But the man at the centre of the extradition process claims it is a mistake and is challenging them to prove his identity.
When I interviewed him at the BBC's Pacific Quay in Glasgow, he was in a wheelchair, his voice competing against the hiss of an oxygen mask.
He says he is not Nicholas Rossi - the man the Americans want to extradite on a rape charge in Utah.
In fact, he claims he has never even been to America.

"I'm Arthur Knight and this is my wife Miranda Knight," he told me.
He claims to have got married in Bristol two years ago and produces a wedding certificate.

But there is no birth certificate in his pile of documents. He claims this is a consequence of being adopted in Ireland before moving to London in his teens.
I tell him that the story he is telling me has been dismissed as a load of rubbish by the US authorities and that they are sure he is Nicholas Rossi.
"Then I would invite them to prove it," he says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60676092

 

[catseye]

A strange one, looks as if he may well be the fugitive though.

It is a bizarre case that has been making international headlines. A man was arrested on a Covid ward in a Glasgow hospital and accused by the US authorities of being a fugitive who faked his own death to evade justice.

They say Nicholas Rossi is suspected of a number of sexual assaults and is wanted to face a rape charge in the state of Utah.
But the man at the centre of the extradition process claims it is a mistake and is challenging them to prove his identity.
When I interviewed him at the BBC's Pacific Quay in Glasgow, he was in a wheelchair, his voice competing against the hiss of an oxygen mask.
He says he is not Nicholas Rossi - the man the Americans want to extradite on a rape charge in Utah.
In fact, he claims he has never even been to America.

"I'm Arthur Knight and this is my wife Miranda Knight," he told me.
He claims to have got married in Bristol two years ago and produces a wedding certificate.

But there is no birth certificate in his pile of documents. He claims this is a consequence of being adopted in Ireland before moving to London in his teens.
I tell him that the story he is telling me has been dismissed as a load of rubbish by the US authorities and that they are sure he is Nicholas Rossi.
"Then I would invite them to prove it," he says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60676092

Presumably if he is wanted on rape charges, there will be DNA to match against?

 

[CyberianTiger]

Not sure where to put this one. Glasgow man claims mistaken identity as US authorities seek his extradition and claim he faked his own death. Judge for yourself.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The Wikipedia article on Rossi / Knight under his apparently original name of Nicholas Alahverdian provides more details on his very convoluted and confusing story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alahverdian

 

[escargot]

Dunn if I'm being thick 'ere but how was he tracked down to Scotland?

 

[SimonBurchell]

Dunn if I'm being thick 'ere but how was he tracked down to Scotland?

According to the BBC article linked above "staff recognised him from his tattoos". Sounds highly dubious to me.

 

[escargot]

According to the BBC article linked above "staff recognised him from his tattoos". Sounds highly dubious to me.

Yes, I saw that and was also suspicious.

More like, nobody believed he had died and he was discreetly tracked.
The FBI are good at that. For example, they knew exactly where Ghislaine Maxwell was the whole time she was on the run after Epstein's death.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

I appreciate he is unwell but he could remove his shirt and show he has no tattoos...?

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I appreciate he is unwell but he could remove his shirt and show he has no tattoos...?

I thought much the same thing, if he wants it to go away that would go a long way towards that outcome. His answers did seem a little evasive at points but then he's in a stressful situation and on an oxygen tank.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

I thought much the same thing, if he wants it to go away that would go a long way towards that outcome. His answers did seem a little evasive at points but then he's in a stressful situation and on an oxygen tank.

The fact he recently nearly died of Covid is irrelevant to whether or not he raped someone in 2008, so I'm not certain why he puts so much weight on it. Likewise his wife's testimony that he is not a rapist - they married two years ago. The more I have looked into this the more suspicious I have become

 

[Ogdred Weary]

The fact he recently nearly died of Covid is irrelevant to whether or not he raped someone in 2008, so I'm not certain why he puts so much weight on it. Likewise his wife's testimony that he is not a rapist - they married two years ago. The more I have looked into this the more suspicious I have become

My point was his answers/behaviour might be slightly abnormal under the circumstances - recovering from covid. The situation is very suspicious. as you say.

 

[Coal]

If someone's hiding soemthing they have something to hide.

 

[kamalktk]

If someone's hiding soemthing they have something to hide.

Or they just prefer their privacy. I know I do, and I'm not accused of anything.

 

[ramonmercado]

It's him sez the court.

A man arrested in a Scottish hospital last year is US fugitive Nicholas Rossi, a court has ruled.

The man had claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity, and insisted his name was Arthur Knight. But Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi.

Authorities in the US are seeking Rossi's extradition over allegations of rape and sexual assault. It is alleged that he faked his own death and fled to Scotland to escape prosecution. He had spent the past year insisting that he was Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland who had never been to the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63568949

 

[Cochise]

But there is no birth certificate in his pile of documents. He claims this is a consequence of being adopted in Ireland before moving to London in his teens.

My first wife basically told me the same thing - it was because she had been born out of wedlock and adopted via an Irish orphanage. It really rankled with her that she had no way of tracing her birth mother. She didn't even know her birth name.

The story of her adoption was confirmed by her adopted father, but he had no clue where in Ireland she'd even come from, the adoption had been transacted via the English RC church.

Doesn't of course mean this guy is telling the truth, he may just have come across a plausible reason for not being on record.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

It's him sez the court.

A man arrested in a Scottish hospital last year is US fugitive Nicholas Rossi, a court has ruled.

The man had claimed to have been the victim of mistaken identity, and insisted his name was Arthur Knight. But Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi.

Authorities in the US are seeking Rossi's extradition over allegations of rape and sexual assault. It is alleged that he faked his own death and fled to Scotland to escape prosecution. He had spent the past year insisting that he was Arthur Knight, an orphan from Ireland who had never been to the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-63568949

No great surprise here.

 

[Ermintruder]

Today's BBC Radio Scotland reports on this have added some further curious perspectives to this already-strange case:

- Apparently Rossi/Knight's DNA samples were obtained (and analysed by the FBI) even before the current case even started (What?!!)
- Rossi/Knight claims that he woke-up in a Glasgow hospital after a coma-like incident, and found his body had been marked in "forged tattoos" to frame him
- Ross/Knight insists that his fingerprints were taken in Scotland, then passed to the FBI and inserted into older records as an allegedly-false circular reference
- Public defenders (Crown-appointed legal council for the accused in the UK) have stated that it would be illegal for Rossi/Knight (or anyone else?) to ever be extradited to the US because their detention systems / jails breach international baseline conventions for minimal compliance with standards, and to have him taken to the USA would breach his human rights (apparently)

Hmm......all VERY odd.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hmmm. It might be possible to verify that the tattoos are new. Over time, tattoos fade and get blurry edges. If, as this man claims, they are new, they would have pretty clear-cut edges to them.

 

[maximus otter]

- Rossi/Knight claims that he woke-up in a Glasgow hospital after a coma-like incident, and found his body had been marked in "forged tattoos" to frame him

- Ross/Knight insists that his fingerprints were taken in Scotland, then passed to the FBI and inserted into older records as an allegedly-false circular

Does he also insist that the dog ate his homework and that the cheque is in the post?



maximus otter

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Hmmm. It might be possible to verify that the tattoos are new. Over time, tattoos fade and get blurry edges. If, as this man claims, they are new, they would have pretty clear-cut edges to them.

I think that takes a long time though - many years, a decade plus perhaps. Also "modern" tattoos seem to be done better or differently to older ones: I haven't seen anyone with those dirty blue, "blurry" tattoos that I'd see on older men when I was a kid (80s) for many, many years. Maybe those tattoos were many decades old at that point and the explosion in popularity of tattoos 00s will lead to many people covered in blurry blue lines in the 2030s and 40s.

 

[Min Bannister]

Hmmm. It might be possible to verify that the tattoos are new. Over time, tattoos fade and get blurry edges. If, as this man claims, they are new, they would have pretty clear-cut edges to them.

Not really necessary though is it? The claim is totally absurd.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Not really necessary though is it? The claim is totally absurd.

I know, but I was 'entertaining the possibilities'.

 

[Ermintruder]

The claim is totally absurd

Yes, this has always had that totally-surreal cartoon feel about it.

I think I read somewhere that Rossi/Knight's 'medical oxygen tank' has sometimes been spotted en route to court as being in an off mode (as opposed to being.....on), despite it being ostensibly portrayed as a lifeline for him.

I noticed him at one point wearing overshoe spats (in addition to his pseudo-1920s gangster pinstripe suits), and his range of large bizarre hats are just pantomime gold.

Some may think that the charge of "being found in contempt of court" is so fitting for him that he should've had that set of books thrown at him even before other more-serious charges are brought forward for consideration.

I hesitate to describe his actions as calculated.....I think a more-appropriate term might be gambled improvisation & insult.

 

[Xanatic*]

An isotopic analysis of a tooth or similar, could show where in the world he grew up.

 

[Yithian]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1650517041797910530

This is bloody hilarious.

Write-up from the comic:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...YYTeQxiVX6qZNtbJqxvAXW3w3VgjpzMVoKg8Wtt76_Boo

 

[Spookdaddy]

This is bloody hilarious...

I watched that earlier today. It's utterly insane - so utterly insane that it's easy to forget that there's some very serious crime, and several victims, underlying the whole story.

I think of myself as being fairly sussed, but I honestly don't have a clue what to make of him. I keep going back that old adage about some criminals clearly thinking that they are the cleverest guy in the room, and this being their downfall. Has this guy simply not grasped that his 'room' is now the entire world?

And his alleged name? Okay, I've done too may cryptic crosswords in my life, and after a while everything starts to look like a clue. But Arthur Knight? King Arthur? Knights of the round table? I mean, it's bonkers - but tell me something about this case that isn't.

 

[Spookdaddy]

...And his alleged name? Okay, I've done too may cryptic crosswords in my life, and after a while everything starts to look like a clue. But Arthur Knight? King Arthur? Knights of the round table? I mean, it's bonkers - but tell me something about this case that isn't.

Although I suppose that's a step down from Alahverdian - which apparently means 'sent from God'.

The ears look a perfect match to me - always a good sign:

And I wonder if the mask is at least partly to hide the distinctive diastema. Although, the latter would probably be an easier fix than the ears, for a determined shapeshifter.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I guess the authorities could do a DNA test.
That would sort it out.

 

[Spookdaddy]

I guess the authorities could do a DNA test.
That would sort it out.

You'd think so.

Some time back he refused to provide material for DNA testing purposes - but as far as I'm aware permission from the subject is not required in criminal cases (I think it's the same in Scotland as it is in England).

The issue is though that the guy's get out of jail card in regard to all inconvenient material seems to be that it has been manipulated. He'll just say that any match is based on fabrication. I mean, it won't work - but he'll still say it, and his supporters (unbelievably they do exist) will believe it.

 

[Mythopoeika]

You'd think so.

Some time back he refused to provide material for DNA testing purposes - but as far as I'm aware permission from the subject is not required in criminal cases (I think it's the same in Scotland as it is in England).

The issue is though that the guy's get out of jail card in regard to all inconvenient material seems to be that it has been manipulated. He'll just say that any match is based on fabrication. I mean, it won't work - but he'll still say it, and his supporters (unbelievably they do exist) will believe it.

I would love to see video footage of them taking it forcibly.