Fugitive rapist who faked ID facing a life sentence

Attacker betrayed by tattoos is found guilty after 18 years

- BY CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN US Editor

AN American who faked his own death and fled to Britain to avoid a rape charge faces a possible life sentence after finally being found guilty of the 2008 attack.

A DNA breakthrough in 2018 identified Nicholas Rossi as the possible rapist.

But months after charges were filed the following year, an online obituary claimed he had died from non-Hodgkin' lymphoma.

Rossi — real name Nicholas Alahverdian - fled to the UK before marrying, moving to Scotland and living under a string of fake IDs.

But all along, US police, his former lawyer and his foster family didn't believe he was dead.

In late 2021 he was arrested in a Glasgow hospital while being treated for Covid when staff recognised his tattoos from an Interpol notice.

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He fought his extradition and turned up to court in a wheelchair and using an oxygen mask.