Rape suspect Nicholas Rossi, suspected of faking his own death before being extradited to the United States, says his wife calls him “The Gruffalo” because his “belly is big.”
Rossi, 36, was deported to the United States in January after spending two years fighting extradition from Scotland. His claims of mistaken identity were rejected by Scottish judges.
In a rare interview in his Glasgow flat before his extradition, Rossi’s wife Miranda told how they had gone to see The Gruffalo play and how she had compared him to the monster in Julia Donaldson’s children’s book.
Rossi, who appeared during all of his court appearances in the United Kingdom in a motorized wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask, still maintains that he is an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.
In February he appeared in Utah’s Fourth District Court charged with rape and is still awaiting trial in jail.
Nicholas Rossi, 36, who claims to be Irish orphan Arthur Knight, with his wife Miranda, who calls him The Gruffalo because of his “big belly”.
Rossi leaves Edinburgh Sheriff Court after his US extradition hearing in July 2023. He was deported to the US in January this year.
He was caught after he woke up from a medically induced coma in a Covid ward at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December 2021 and was subsequently arrested.
He is alleged to have raped a 21-year-old woman in Orem, Utah, and a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake County, both in 2008, for which he faces the prospect of life in prison.
Today Sunday weather published an interview with Rossi in 2022 before his extradition, where he told the newspaper how his wife “calls me Gruffalo or Gruff.”
“It’s because my belly is big,” she said.
During the surreal exchange, devoted Christian Miranda compared herself to “the speedy bitch with the red hair” and revealed how the pair had gone to see the play together.
“He (The Gruffalo) is actually the one being manipulated,” Rossi said.
“The real villain is the mouse.”
Under the guise of Arthur Brown, Rossi is believed to have met his wife, Miranda Knight, in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming the name Arthur Knight.
They moved to Glasgow shortly after, but in 2021, Rossi became so ill with Covid that he had to be hospitalized at the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
In 2019, Rossi claimed he had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is accused of faking his death a year later (pictured in 2008 in Utah).
He faces charges related to the sexual assault of a woman in Orem, Utah, nearly 16 years ago. Rossi faces another felony rape charge in Salt Lake County and many other allegations
The 36-year-old, who appears in a mugshot from a 2010 arrest, fled to Scotland after being identified as a suspect in a 2008 rape case.
During his first court appearance in the United States, Rossi wore an oxygen mask and spoke with a British accent, as he has done in previous court appearances abroad.
She insisted to the Times that she “wouldn’t choose someone who was a rapist” and he is “kind, thoughtful and loving.”
In July 2020, DNA allegedly linked him to a 2008 rape in Utah, which ultimately led to his discovery in Scotland.
He was arrested on 13 December 2021 at Glasgow Hospital by police officers who handed him an Interpol red notice.
Rossi also goes by Nick Alahverdian, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown and Arthur Brown.
He caused confusion during his first court appearance in the United States in January as he continued to speak with a British accent throughout the hearing and was wearing an oxygen mask that made it difficult to understand what he was saying.
He is still awaiting trial in a Utah jail.
There has never been an official version of events from Rossi because he continues to insist that he is Arthur Knight and that the authorities have got the wrong man.
In an interview with Dateline, Rossi is seen speaking with what appears to be an English accent and angrily insists that he is a Brit named Arthur Knight.
He also theatrically tried to stand up to show that he couldn’t walk before lying down again.
Rossi appeared alongside his British wife, Miranda, who shouted: ‘Woah’, before attempting to stabilize him.
‘I’m not Nicholas Alahverdian. I don’t know how to clarify this,” he told NBC in a strange accent, muffled by an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.
Rossi, whose real name is Nicholas Alahverdian, made his first court appearance in February following his extradition to the United States a month earlier.
The 36-year-old man identified himself as Arthur Knight Brown, the name he is accused of living under after fleeing the US.
In his court appearances, he has maintained his painful English accent, with an Irish twang whenever he mentions the word Dublin, where he says he was born.
Miranda, who still lives in Britain, has remained by her husband’s side since he was first arrested in December 2021.
“I’m here with Arthur,” he told the Daily Record in February. ‘I know my husband, I love him and he has always been the perfect gentleman to me and he has always wanted the best for me.
“I know what I’ve read about this other person,” he continued. “The claims and what he has done are black and white to who I am married to.”