Fugitive sex offender Nicholas Rossi will be transferred to England for questioning over an alleged rape from 2017.
Essex Police are setting up a prisoner transfer agreement with authorities in Scotland to ask about an attack on a woman he met in the UK after fleeing the US, the Record can reveal.
The deal is being worked on after the 35-year-old’s identity was confirmed at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday, where claims that he was an Irishman called Arthur Knight were thrown out.
Rossi is accused of raping Michelle Minnaar, 41, at her home in Essex during a five-week abusive relationship which he started after fleeing his home in Rhode Island.
He arrived at her door with suitcases in June 2017 after targeting her on a dating website and convincing her to let him stay with her.
Photographer Michelle contacted Essex Police earlier this year to allege she was raped in her home by Rossi.
Last night, a spokesman for the force confirmed they would be speaking to Rossi, who is facing extradition to the US over allegations of two other rapes and a sexual assault in Utah.
He said: “We are aware of a decision made by a Scottish court in relation to a man arrested there.
“We are now liaising with Scottish authorities in order to facilitate an interview with the man regarding a non-recent allegation of rape in Chelmsford which was made to us in April 2022.”
If Essex Police charge Rossi with rape, that case and any subsequent conviction would have to be completed before he could be extradited.
The Scottish Courts Service confirmed those were the rules under the Extradition Act.
Michelle, who waived her anonymity to reveal her relationship with Rossi, said: “It’s taken too long but it’s a relief that he’s now recognised as who I said he was all along.
“I’m glad Essex Police is finally doing something.
“I just felt completely helpless because they said I might not get a conviction because it’s a ‘he said she said’ situation but I just want him to be behind bars for the rest of his life, it doesn’t matter where.
“I know people in America will have more evidence than me and are awaiting their own day in court.
“Although [it would throw] my own case under the bus, I feel like I want him extradited as soon as possible so that he is far away from me.”
A police source said: “Now that his identity is confirmed, talks are underway for a prisoner transfer agreement to take him to a facility in Essex for questioning.”
Rossi was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital last December while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
In his ruling on Rossi’s identity at Friday’s extradition hearing, Sheriff Norman McFadyen called the accused’s allegation he was tattooed while in a coma to frame him as “implausible and fanciful”.
And he said Rossi’s “highly suspicious” change of names in recent years was “consistent with someone who was hiding from someone or something”.
The sheriff added: “I am ultimately satisfied on the balance of probabilities, by the evidence of fingerprint, photographic and tattoo evidence, taken together, supported by the change of names, that Mr Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition to the United States.”
A week-long extradition hearing was set to begin on March 6, with a preliminary hearing on January 5.
Sheriff McFadyen refused another bail application by Rossi, who is being held at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison, telling him his status as a “flight risk” had been established by evidence, including his use of aliases.
