How the masks slipped throughout US fugitive's court docket saga

[ad_1] Steven Godden BBC Scotland Information

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/7dc2/live/1c86c960-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="PA Media Nicholas Rossi outside court. He is wearing a black hat, striped three-piece suit and a bow tie, as well as sunglasses and an oxygen mask. He has raised his left hand in a V for victory salute." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> PA Media Nicholas Rossi first got here to public consideration within the UK after his arrest in December 2021

I first met Nicholas Rossi - or Arthur Knight, as he insisted on being known as - in February 2022 in a hall at Edinburgh Sheriff Courtroom.

He was there to battle extradition to the US, the place he was accused of rape.

Sitting in his electrical wheelchair, wearing a three-piece swimsuit and sporting a large brimmed hat, the raspy voice behind the oxygen masks was telling anybody who would hear that this was all a horrible misunderstanding.

His palms, in the meantime, had been hoovering up reporters' enterprise playing cards.

Rossi's departure that day set the tone for what grew to become a well-recognized scene - a slapstick efficiency in entrance of the cameras throughout which he tipped his wheelchair onto the pavement whereas making an attempt to manoeuvre right into a ready taxi.

Later that night an unknown quantity flashed up on my cell phone and I heard that very same raspy voice.

"Good day Steven, it is Arthur… do you've a minute?"

And so started an train in separating truth from fiction that continues three years later, which I've explored in a brand new podcast as a part of the Unusual However True Crime sequence on BBC Sounds.

The identify Nicholas Rossi first got here to wider consideration in December 2021 when he was arrested on the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital.

Employees had recognised his mugshot and distinctive tattoos from an Interpol needed discover.

The issue for the American authorities was that the person they had been looking for to extradite swore blind he was the sufferer of mistaken id.

He claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish-born orphan who had by no means been to America - and stated he may show it.

A few weeks after our first phone-call, "Arthur" was sitting reverse me in a BBC studio, his spouse Miranda by his aspect, telling his story for the cameras.

He stated he grew up in care in Dublin and escaped to London as a young person. There, he offered books along with his associates at Camden market, like Del Boy from the comedy Solely Fools and Horses.

Years later he married Miranda in Bristol earlier than they moved to Glasgow. He confirmed me their marriage certificates - accompanied by a particular licence from the Anglican Church, as a result of "I would not misinform the Archbishop of Canterbury".

What he could not produce was a delivery certificates. Or a passport.

The story of Nicholas Rossi, the US fugitive who 'faked his personal loss of life' (Video by Morgan Spence, Graham Fraser and David MacNicol)

He was obscure about his schooldays and could not say what occurred to his previous associates.

At occasions the dialog veered as wildly as his accent – from claims he survived the London Tube bombing (he received the date improper) to a narrative about as soon as assembly Del Boy's sidekick Rodney.

He repeatedly denied being Nicholas Rossi, however once I requested about tattoos he stated he was "too drained" to indicate me his arms.

It was a surreal, unconvincing efficiency that was being watched throughout the Atlantic by loads of individuals who recognised the principle character.

"I would know these palms wherever," Mary Grebinski later informed me.

She'd been a school scholar in 2008 when Nicholas Rossi sexually assaulted her on the way in which to class. He was convicted and positioned on the intercourse offenders register.

In Dayton, Ohio – the town the place that assault occurred – I additionally spoke to Rossi's ex-wife.

Kathryn Heckendorn stated she had purchased him the purple silk pyjamas "Arthur" had been filmed carrying exterior court docket.

Their sad marriage lasted eight months. The choose who granted their divorce in 2016 stated Rossi was responsible of "gross neglect of responsibility and cruelty" on account of his abusive behaviour.

Conversations like this helped fill within the blanks.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f442/live/340be7a0-0339-11f0-b50e-9d086302645f.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="PA Media Nicholas Rossi outside court in a wheelchair, wearing a maroon dressing gown and silk pyjamas. He is wearing glasses and an oxygen mask." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> PA Media Rossi's ex-wife Kathryn Heckendorn recognised a pair of pyjamas he wore to at least one court docket look

Nicholas Rossi was born Nicholas Alahverdian in 1987. Rossi was the identify of his stepfather, who on the time was Rhode Island's premiere Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator.

As a young person he hung out in care and, years later, loved a level of native fame as a baby welfare campaigner.

When stories of Alahverdian's loss of life emerged in 2020, politicians paid tribute from the ground of the Rhode Island State Home.

In accordance with a web based obituary his final phrases had been: "Concern not and run in the direction of the bliss of the solar."

Nevertheless it did not take lengthy for this deception to start unravelling.

A priest who had been requested to rearrange a memorial mass was warned by a detective to not go forward as a result of "Nicholas is not useless".

As an alternative, the authorities suspected Rossi was someplace within the UK, having fled after discovering that the FBI had been investigating an alleged bank card fraud.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/d4ed/live/d9818a50-0339-11f0-8c3d-b7dcc7510cb1.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="PA Media Nicholas Rossi outside court. He is in a wheelchair and is wearing a blue suit, white shirt, striped tie, glasses and an oxygen mask. People behind him are filming him on their phones and a long chain being held by a police officer links to his handcuffs." class="sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj"/> PA Media The authorized course of dragged on within the Scottish courts

It was his on-line footprint that finally led police to his hospital bedside in Glasgow – mockingly because the fugitive was recovering from a real near-death expertise within the form of Covid.

At considered one of his early extradition hearings the sheriff commented that advancing the case should not be "rocket science".

However the authorized course of dragged on and on – largely as a result of Rossi's antics.

There have been rambling courtroom monologues, questionable medical episodes and theatrical outbursts which had been usually directed at his personal legal professionals as a prelude to sacking them.

Sitting within the public gallery, it was not often uninteresting. Rossi's declare {that a} corrupt hospital worker known as Patrick tattooed him whereas he was in a coma was one of many extra memorable exchanges.

In the long run the sheriff's conclusion was that the Arthur Knight charade was "implausible" and "fanciful".

And but Rossi caught to his story – whilst his extradition was accepted and Excessive Courtroom judges refused his attraction.

He caught to his story as US Marshals bundled him onto a personal jet and as jail guards booked him into the Utah County jail.

He caught to his story in a Utah courtroom, till immediately he did not.

US fugitive Nicholas Rossi admits utilizing Arthur Knight alias

In October final 12 months I tuned in to a routine bail listening to on-line when, with out warning, the luxury English persona disappeared.

Talking in a transparent American accent he informed the choose he was born Nicholas Alahverdian earlier than his identify modified to Rossi.

As he claimed to have hidden his id to flee "loss of life threats", I discovered myself questioning why he'd chosen that particular second for the masks to slide.