American rapist Nicholas Rossi, who fled to Scotland after appearing to fake his own death in an attempt to escape justice, has died in hospital in the United States.
The 38-year-old, who is also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, had been serving a jail sentence in Utah for raping two women in the state in 2008.
The Utah Department of Corrections confirmed he died from complications from an existing medical condition at 8.32pm on Thursday, having chosen to discontinue medical treatment.
Rossi used a number of aliases to evade detection and allegedly faked his death, with an obituary published online claiming he died on February 29 2020 of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
It is not known when Rossi first came to the UK, but he lived in Bristol for a time before coming to Scotland.
He was arrested at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow in 2021, while being treated for Covid-19.
Hospital staff had recognised by his distinctive tattoos that he was a person the US authorities wanted to extradite.
A lengthy court process ensued, which gathered international attention for its bizarre nature, with Rossi – who would be taken into court in a wheelchair while using an oxygen mask – steadfastly claiming he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.
He also claimed to have been given the tattoos while he was in a coma in hospital so that he resembled the wanted man.
At one stage he claimed he was so unwell he was unable to raise his arms above his head, despite having visibly done so in court the day before.
In November 2022, a Scottish judge ruled he was in fact Nicholas Rossi, and in August 2023 the same judge ruled he could be extradited to the US to face justice.
Rossi appealed against the decision, claiming he would not receive a fair trial in the US because he was investigating those seeking to extradite him, and that he had been denied medical care in prison.
However the court dismissed his claims as “conspiracy theories”, and he was put on a plane back to the US in 2024.
The following year he was convicted in separate trials of raping two women in Utah in 2008.
He was handed a cumulative sentence of at least ten years in prison.
In a statement the Utah Department of Corrections said: “Rossi was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Thursday, June 25, 2026, at 8.32pm. He was 38 years old.
“Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment.
“This notification follows communication with Rossi’s family and his victims.
“Rossi was serving a cumulative sentence of 10 years to life for two counts of first degree felony rape.”