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Fugitive serial sex attacker Nicholas Rossi who faked his own death and fled to Scotland has been jailed for five-years to life. Rossi was sentenced over the first of two sex convictions in Utah. A Salt Lake County jury found him guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial in August His accuser and her parents testified during the proceedings. Last month Rossi, 38, was also found guilty over a second sex attack on a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah. He still faces sentencing for that rape in November. In his first Utah trial, Rossii denied the rape claim and urged jurors not to read too much into his move overseas. The victim had been living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury in 2008 when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within a couple weeks. She testified that Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, lend him £700 so he wouldn’t be evicted, and take on debt to buy their engagement rings. He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his bedroom one night after she drove him home, She told the jury: "He was very charming and seemed very interested in school and politics and music, and he was just very nice to me," The victim went to police years later after hearing Rossi was accused of raping another woman in Utah around the same time. The victim in the second case went to police soon after Rossi attacked her at his apartment in Orem. The woman had gone there to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer. Prosecutor Brandon Simmons said on Monday that the victim in the first case wished to speak. She said: "It stole who I was. Now I mistrust instinctively," The victim in the Orem case also wanted to read a statement at the sentencing. Samantha Dugan, Rossi's public defender, opposed the idea of the judge allowing another woman who believes Rossi wronged her to speak during the victim impact testimony. The judge allowed her to speak, and she said nothing can erase what happened. She added "In 2008, I began a relationship with Mr. Rossi. "He became controlling verbally and emotionally. Eventually, he stole some money from me. "I was pressured to come over to the apartment to resolve the money issue," she continued. "He forced himself on me. I've felt shame, fear, guilt, and confusion. " Rossi was convicted in the Orem case and will be sentenced on Nov. 4. Rossi, who spoke with a raspy voice, claimed innocence and said the women were lying. Rossi jumped bail over the 2008 rape charges and resurfaced in Glasgow before being detained by Police Scotland detectives.. He was extradited back to the States last year to face the charge. It took more than a decade from the time of the rapes to his convictions. Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit tied to the second case. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog. Months after he was charged an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognised his distinctive tattoos — including the crest of Brown University inked on his shoulder, although he never attended — from an Interpol notice. He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a protracted court battle. At the time, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.
