SPEAKING with an upper-class English accent via an oxygen masks, Arthur Knight does not appear a possible candidate for a US fugitive.
However in accordance with the FBI, he was really suspected serial rapist and conman Nicholas Rossi, who had faked his personal demise after fleeing the States.
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Who’s Arthur Knight?
Actual title Nicholas Alahverdian, Arthur Knight was born on July 11, 1987, in Rhode Island, United States.
He’s identified by the police as Nicholas Rossi, amongst different aliases,
Rossi is an American intercourse offender who faked his personal demise in 2020.
He has one prior conviction, for sexually assaulting Mary Grebinski when she was a 19-year-old pupil in Ohio in 2008.
For a brief time period, Rossi studied comparative literature in extension program lessons supplied by Harvard College.
Nonetheless, he did not graduate, as in 2012 he was “administratively withdrawn” from the course when the uni discovered of his intercourse offender standing.
Regardless of this, Rossi claimed to be a “Harvard scholar, political scientist and sociologist”.
Why did Nicholas Rossi go by the alias, Arthur Knight?
Rossi is believed to have lived below at the least 16 totally different names.
He typically posed as a Harvard College graduate or campaigning whistleblower.
Rossi is known to have modified his title to Arthur Knight when he fled to the UK in 2017 to evade modifications for rape.
Beforehand, Rossi additionally glided by the names:
Nicholas Edward
Nicholas Brown
Arthur Brown
Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi
What occurred to Nicholas Rossi aka Arthur Knight?
After coming to the UK, Rossi appeared to assume the authorities would cease pursuing him if he satisfied them he was lifeless.
He deliberate an elaborate memorial service for himself again residence in Windfall, Rhode Island, after pretending to have died of most cancers in 2020.
Nonetheless, Rossi was rumbled in a Glasgow hospital in December 2021 whereas being handled on a ventilator for Covid after being in a coma.
Rossi insisted he was actually Arthur Knight, an Irish educational who had grown up an orphan.
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However the affected person’s fingerprints matched needed Rossi’s.
Nonetheless claiming to be Arthur Knight, he then went on to court docket the media, hoping to persuade the world he was the sufferer of a miscarriage of justice.
Investigative journalist Jane MacSorley was invited to his Glasgow residence for a meal, spending 4 hours with him and second spouse Miranda, who he married in February 2020.
Jane advised The Solar: “He was charming. They cooked me hen casserole and gave me champagne. What did they should have a good time?”
Previous to assembly Rossi, Jane was satisfied that he was not the Irish man Arthur was claiming to be.
Her mission was to review his arms which, in accordance with American police recordsdata, have been lined in distinctive tattoos.
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Jane modified her thoughts when he rolled up his sleeve to disclose ink-free pores and skin – little did she know, he’d had them eliminated.
She stated: “I used to be as near him as I used to be to my very own arm and he had no make-up and no scarring.
“I believed it should be a case of mistaken id.”
However after she continued to delve additional into the case, Rossi turned nasty.
Jane stated: “I feel he’s harmful. I used to be terrified of him. He plagued me with calls and textual content messages. It was fairly menacing.”
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Why is Nicholas Rossi one in every of America’s most needed criminals?
Rossi fled the US in 2017, the place the FBI needed to talk to him about fraud and rape offences.
In Could 2024, he appeared in a US court docket to face the primary of two trials for rape after being extradited from the UK in January 2024.
It was revealed Rossi will symbolize himself at his trials.
In the course of the listening to in Could, the decide repeatedly urged him to reap the benefits of skilled authorized experience, however he has refused.
Rossi will keep in Utah County Jail till the case calls once more in June 2024.
He denies the fees.
Tips on how to watch Imposter: The Man Who Got here Again From The Useless
A four-part Channel 4 documentary reveals the acute measures Rossi took to evade justice.
Learn extra on the Scottish Solar
They embody having an enormous variety of distinctive tattoos faraway from his arms after they helped to determine him in hospital.
You possibly can watch Imposter: The Man Who Got here Again From The Useless at 9pm on Channel 4 from Could 20, 2024, concluding on June 3, 2024.
Man behind masks
By Gordon Tait
MY story about fugitive Rossi in January 2022 sparked a worldwide media circus – with tonight’s Channel 4 documentary the newest to unpick his lies.
However what’s most superb in regards to the “man behind the masks” thriller is there was really no thriller in any respect.
I tracked down Rossi to a flat in Glasgow’s Woodlands space and we captured a primary glimpse of the person – that has since been aired worldwide – cowering below a blanket whereas being arrested.
Days later, I obtained a name from a wheezing man with a weird English/Irish accent.
It was “Arthur”. He stated he needed to work with me to point out he was an harmless sufferer of a horrible fallacious.
He lavished me with compliments, however inside minutes of our dialog, his story started to collapse – he couldn’t clarify how his tattoos and fingerprints matched Rossi’s.
He requested me: “Do you wish to be known as Gordon or Mr Tait?”. I advised him I didn’t thoughts, I solely had one title.
There was no means I used to be dancing to his tune, or permitting a suspected a number of rapist a sympathetic ear, so I began calling him Nick as an alternative of Arthur.
He wasn’t completely happy and his pleas for me to go to him have been rebuffed. I then obtained a torrent of abusive emails and threats, which received private.
I met Rossi head to head for the primary time at Edinburgh Sheriff Court docket in April 2022.
He drove as much as me in his wheelchair, prolonged his hand and tried to introduce himself. I declined and advised him: “I don’t shake fingers with intercourse offenders, Nick.”
That prompted a slew of rage and insults. I’ve heard so much worse, however the explosion of anger – one thing he has been accused of since he was 18 – confirmed what he was all about.
In early November 2022, after quite a few delaying techniques, his id was lastly established with effective collaboration between US and Scottish police.
He was extradited late final yr and now faces trial within the US – however the fascination with him continues.
