A Utah judge has sentenced Nicholas Rossi, a Rhode Island man who fled the country and faked his own death, for a second rape conviction Tuesday.
According to KSL, Tuesday’s sentence stemmed from a 2008 Orem rape, the same year Rossi, 38, also raped a former girlfriend.
Judge Derek P. Pullan, in Utah 4th District Court in Provo, handed down an “indeterminate sentencing” to at least five years in prison for the second rape conviction. It was the same sentence handed down last month for the rape of his ex-girlfriend in Salt Lake County.
During the second incident, Rossi raped a 21-year-old Utah Valley University student that he dated briefly after stealing her money, a jury in the 4th District Court heard. The jury found him guilty in September.
The victim said she invited Rossi over to his apartment to retrieve borrowed money, following a break-up after he became too controlling. While at the apartment, Rossi raped her.
READ MORE: Nicholas Rossi Sentenced for Rape After Faking Death, Fleeing Country
In September 2020, a rape kit confirmed Rossi was the aggressor. Although she completed the rape kit shortly after the assault, it wasn’t tested until over a decade later, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“I’ve struggled with severe anxiety, especially around men and relationships. Trust has been almost impossible to rebuild, and I have carried feelings of shame, fear, guilt and confusion,” the second rape victim stated.
Prosecutors filed charges in 2022, but Rossi had already faked his death and fled to Scotland.
An online obituary claimed Rossi died on February 29, 2020, from late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma, although investigators and his former foster families had doubts.
In December 2021, Rossi was identified and apprehended while getting treatment for COVID-19 at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland.
Hospital staff recognized Rossi from his tattoos from an international alert, known as an INTERPOL notice.
Rossi claimed to be an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, arguing that he had never been to the U.S. However, Rossi grew up in Rhode Island foster homes, according to NBC News.
In 2024, a Scottish judge ordered Rossi to be extradited back to the U.S., calling his claims of being an Irish orphan “implausible” and “fanciful.”
Rossi claimed his innocence and said both women lied.
Rossi: “Victimhood is the new status symbol, like a small dog or a new purse. Everyone needs to be a victim, because that is their way of signifying their status.”
Pullan: “If victimhood is the new status symbol, then it was a status you falsely claimed for yourself in an effort to avoid conviction. And it is a status rightfully claimed by [the victim] and many others, not by choice, but because you forcefully raped her.”
The judge allowed Rossi credit for time served in jail since 2024. Rossi has 30 days to file an appeal on the Utah County case.
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[Feature Photo: FILE – In this image made from pool video footage, Nicholas Rossi, accused of faking his death and fleeing to Europe to avoid rape charges, appears at a jury trial in Salt Lake City, Aug. 11, 2025. (Firecrest Films via AP, Pool, File)]
