(IntegrityPress.org) – Problems are continuing to mount for the man whom authorities are convinced is an American fugitive that changed his identity to dodge a series of stateside rape charges. Officials in the United Kingdom had already agreed to extradite 36-year-old Nicholas Rossi back to the United States once all the details could be ironed out, but he had not yet been arrested.
Only days after his extradition agreement was made official, police in Essex took Rossi into custody. The seemingly wheelchair-bound alleged conman was arrested on suspicions of a U.K.-based rape that was said to have taken place in 2017 in the city of Chelmsford. According to police, Rossi’s 42-year-old female victim first met the American online.
Officials said that their dating app connection resulted in Rossi traveling to Essex to meet his love interest. Once he was in her home, police say he assaulted her. Though the initial instance of alleged abuse took place over five years ago, the victim did not report it until April of 2022.
It is unclear if or how Rossi’s British Isles arrest will affect his extradition to the United States. Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic will now have to determine if charges in the U.K. will be addressed before his departure from Europe or after his arrival in North America.
For those unfamiliar with the fugitive’s backstory, Nicholas Rossi’s stateside legal problems were preceded by a brief career in New England politics. As a young person, he worked as an aide in the Rhode Island State House, where he portrayed himself as a victim of childhood abuse that was looking to change the foster system.
He was eventually outed as a fraud and accused of several assault-based crimes. Authorities say he staged his own elaborate death and fled the country. “Rossi” speaks with a hard-to-place “Irish” accent, wears an oxygen mask and claims that his name is Arthur Knight.
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