Nicholas Rossi, the American rapist who fled to Scotland after apparently faking his own death to evade justice, has died in a US hospital. The 38-year-old was serving a jail sentence in Utah for raping two women in 2008, following two separate trials in 2024.
The Utah Department of Corrections said Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition at 8.32pm on Thursday, after choosing to discontinue treatment. A spokesperson confirmed that his victims and family were notified.
Rossi, once described by a judge as a “serial abuser of women”, was serving 10 years to life for sexual assault. He had lived in Bristol before moving to Scotland, where he was arrested in 2021 at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, after staff recognised him from an Interpol notice due to distinctive tattoos.
Rossi initially claimed mistaken identity, saying he was an Irish-born orphan named Arthur Knight. After a series of hearings, a judge ruled in November 2022 that he was indeed Nicholas Rossi, and he was extradited to the US in 2024.
Utah authorities had identified Rossi in 2018 through a DNA rape kit, part of a push to clear a backlog of evidence. An online obituary claimed he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in February 2020, but police and his former lawyer doubted this. Utah prosecutor Sim Gill said: “Mr Rossi was a sexual predator who tried to escape accountability. The survivors of his heinous acts have the consolation that he died in prison with the knowledge of the crimes he committed.”
