A deal is about to be reached to transfer fugitive sex offender Nicholas Rossi to England for questioning over an alleged rape.
Essex Police have worked with the authorities in Scotland to set up a method of quizzing Rossi about a relationship he had with Michelle Minnaar in 2017.
The Essex resident, 42, claims she was raped during the five-week period they lived together when the American fled the US and turned up at her home after they had met online. It’s expected Rossi will be transfered from HMP Edinburgh to a jail in the north of England following his extradition hearing, which begins at Edinburgh Sheriff Court next Monday.
Rossi – who calls himself Arthur Knight – is fighting a request by US authorities in Utah to have him returned there where he is wanted for two historical charges of rape and one of sexual assault.
Despite his identity being proven beyond doubt – both in court and in Sunday Mail stories – lying Rossi, 35, is sticking to his tale that it’s a stitch-up and a case of mistaken identity.
His Bristol-born wife Miranda Knight, 42, who he hooked up with after the relationship with Michelle ended, is standing by him. It’s understood Essex Police and officials from the Scottish Prison Service and Police Scotland have been locked in talks for weeks to find a suitable prison for Rossi in England.
A source said: “A deal is close but any conversation with the accused will only take place after his extradition matter in Edinburgh. He needs to stay at HMP Edinburgh for that.
“What will happen after that is he’ll be taken from Scotland to England to the agreed location where English police officers have the authority to question him and charge him if they needed to.
"It has proved difficult because of his need to be in a wheelchair and use breathing apparatus and finding a prison where he can be accommodated is the issue. Everyone is working together on this to make sure he can be questioned and won’t be able to slip away on this one.”
Michelle revealed her story in the Sunday Mail last year in revelations and proof that destroyed Rossi’s claim he was an innocent Irishman living in the UK.
He’d fled from Bristol to Glasgow with Miranda as police began to track him down in but officers caught him at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in late 2021 where he was seriously ill with Covid.
The Scottish Prison Service said it does not comment on individual prisoners. Scottish prosecutors declined to comment.
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