An alleged fugitive fighting extradition to the US is seeking to be freed on bail from a Scottish jail because fellow prisoners are taunting him by singing John Denver’s hit Leaving on a Jet Plane.
Nicholas Rossi, 35, faces extradition to the US over charges of serious sexual assault in Utah, after he was arrested in an intensive care ward in Glasgow following his admission with Covid.
Claiming to be a man called Arthur Knight, Rossi has denied he is an international fugitive wanted by Interpol who has used 16 aliases to evade capture.
Authorities in the state of Rhode Island have sought his arrest for failing to register as a sex offender; he also faces fraud charges in Ohio.
After being arrested in hospital in December 2021, he has lost eight defence lawyers, after alleged disputes over his legal strategy and his alleged refusal to attend meetings.
In an application for bail on Thursday, Rossi told Edinburgh sheriff court he was being bullied by other prisoners on the remand wing at Saughton jail in Edinburgh because they regularly sang the song at him.
Sitting slumped in a wheelchair fitted with an oxygen tank, Rossi told Sheriff Norman McFadyen: “I’ve been treated incredibly terribly. My wife is afraid to enter the prison.
“I’ve been bullied on a daily basis. I’ve been kept in my cell 24 hours a day. This [the bullying] includes singing of the song Leaving on a Jet Plane.”
His bail application was denied.
At an earlier hearing the sheriff had dismissed Rossi’s claim that he had been misidentified; Rossi continues to claim, however, that the authorities had faked his Interpol warrant by transposing a photograph of his face on to a photograph of the real Rossi’s body.
Thursday’s hearing was adjourned to allow the US authorities, who have applied for a second extradition warrant on a new rape allegation against Rossi, to carry out further fingerprint and DNA checks before a full extradition hearing in March.
At an earlier hearing, where he had accused a previous defence solicitor of acting “like a mouse”, Rossi had appeared in court wearing a dressing gown, pyjamas, slippers and an oxygen mask.
