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American who fled to UK to avoid rape charge breaks down as he insists he’s a Brit called Arthur Knight

Published 11:31 25 Apr 2023 BST

Updated 11:40 25 Apr 2023 BST

Jack Peat
American who fled to UK to avoid rape charge breaks down as he insists he’s a Brit called Arthur Knight

Homenews

He was found after being hospitalised with Covid last year

An American fugitive who faked his own death and fled to Scotland appeared visibly distressed in an NBC interview as he insisted he's a Brit called Arthur Knight.

Nicholas Rossi was discovered at a hospital in Glasgow after he spent a month in the ICU with Covid last year.

Medical staff and police were able to identify him by comparing his tattoos with pictures of Rossi on an Interpol red notice.

The man - who had a number of aliases - is connected to sexual assault, harassment, and kidnapping cases in Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Utah.

Lawyers believe that Rossi had “fled the country to avoid prosecution,” and he later faked his death by posting a fake obituary on EverLoved.com.

It states that Nicholas Alahverdian, one of his aliases, died on February 29, 200, from non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

The US is now seeking to extradite him, but in a bid to clear his name, he has appeared on US TV show Dateline, where he insisted he has no idea who Alahverdian is and that his name is actually Arthur Knight.

Speaking in a bizarre accent which is muffled by an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, he told NBC:

"I am not Nicholas Alahverdian. I do not know how to make this clearer."

Appearing beside his British wife, Miranda Knight, he went on: "We were once a normal family, but thanks to the media our lives have been interrupted.

Speaking in what sounded like an English accent, he continued: '"And we'd like privacy and I would like to go back to being a normal husband, but I can't because I can't breathe, I can't walk."

In a desperate attempt to then prove he is unable to walk, he tried to stand up before dramatically falling back into his chair as his wife stabilized him.

"Exactly, exactly," he told the interviewer.

When asked if he is putting on a show, he said: "That is a low blow, that is a very low blow."

Watch the bizarre clip in full below:

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American who fled to UK to avoid rape charge breaks down as he insists he's a Brit called Arthur Knight