Utah verdict American who faked his own death guilty of sex assault

AN American who allegedly faked his own death, then married a woman from Bristol and said he was an Irish academic in a failed bid to avoid facing sex assault charges in the US has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in the first of two trials in Utah.

- Hannah SCHOENBAUM

A jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents took the stand.

Rossi has links to Bristol, having - under the name of Arthur Knight - married his wife Miranda there in 2020, where they briefly lived in a large house in the south of the city owned by Miranda before his arrest in Scotland.

The verdict came hours after Rossi, 38, declined to testify on his own behalf. He will be sentenced on October 20 and is set to stand trial in September for another rape charge in Utah County.

First-degree felony rape carries a punishment in Utah of five years to life in prison, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Mr Gill said: "We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place.

"We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice. It took courage and bravery to take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable."