US fugitive Nicholas Rossi has no medical need for using a wheelchair, his prison doctor told a court.
Dr Barbara Mundweil said Rossi claims to be “paralysed”, but there had been no diagnosis of any condition preventing him from walking.
The GP said she’d viewed CCTV from Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison, where she cares for inmates including Rossi, which appeared to show him kicking a door which allegedly struck a prison officer.
Dr Mundweil, 58, said Rossi, who speaks in a laboured and breathless fashion on the witness stand, has the oxygen levels of a “healthy person”.
She was giving her evidence on the third day of Rossi’s extradition hearing at the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday.
Rossi was arrested at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
The 35-year-old, who is fighting a bid to return him to his US homeland to face charges including rape, continues to claim he’s an Irishman called Arthur Knight.
Dr Mundweil, who has cared for Rossi since she started work at the jail last September, said he’d been “severely ill with covid” at the time of his arrest.
She added: “He is a lot better. He says he can’t walk, but I’m not too sure about that because I was not around when that happened.”
Advocate depute Alan Cameron asked the witness if it’s “clear to you what the medical reason is for his use of a wheelchair”.
Dr Mundweil replied: “No.”
She added she’d made inquiries to determine why Rossi needed a wheelchair.
Asked by Mr Cameron if she’d found an explanation, Dr Mundweil replied: “No.”
Dr Mundweil said she’d viewed CCTV last year of an incident when a door swung open and hit a prison officer in the face after Rossi allegedly struck it.
She said: “I suspected the door was kicked with his leg and Mr Rossi claims he’s paralysed.
“I actually saw the leg in the open door.”
Dr Mundweil said she’d examined Rossi and found his legs to be “well muscled”, adding they were “not the legs of a paraplegic”.
The court was told a decision was taken in prison not to “hoist or lift” Rossi into his wheelchair.
Dr Mundweil said Rossi would “throw himself out of his wheelchair” and staff would previously have to help him back into it.
Rossi, who sits in his wheelchair in court, has used an oxygen tank during previous hearings.
Dr Mundweil told the hearing that Rossi stopped using an extra oxygen supply in February.
She said: “Sometimes he claims he is short of breath.”
The doctor said medics would test his oxygen levels and they had “always been satisfactory” and never a concern.
A “healthy person” would give readings of 98 or 99 per cent, she added, and Rossi would give readings of 97 or 98.
Dr Mundweil said she would have 20 to 30 minute conversations with Rossi where he starts by speaking “slowly” and in a “staccato” way, but later began speaking normally.
Under cross examination from Mungo Bovey KC, acting for Rossi, Dr Mundweil agreed Rossi displayed “manipulative” and “aggressive“ behaviour toward prison and medical staff.
The hearing before Sheriff Norman McFadyen continues.
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