A person going through extradition to the US in reference to a historic rape case has claimed he was tattooed whereas unconscious.
The 35-year-old, who says his title is Arthur Knight, has been giving proof at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The court docket is making an attempt to determine whether or not or not he his truly Nicholas Rossi, a person suspected of raping a girl in Utah in 2008 then later faking his personal loss of life.
An Interpol purple discover of Rossi reveals him with quite a lot of distinctive tattoos on each his arms, together with one among a purple cross above an angel wing.
Police Scotland officers arrested him on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow in October final 12 months, after he was hospitalised with respiratory difficulties.
Medical employees recognized him on the idea of the purple discover.
‘I used to be comatose’
At Tuesday’s listening to the person claiming to be Arthur Knight, mentioned that he was in a coma for 18 days earlier than his arrest in Scotland, throughout which era he was tattooed.
He advised the court docket: “Throughout the 18 days I was comatose, I did not have free will over my body. I have never had tattoos prior to being in hospital.”
Advocate depute Paul Harvey requested the person to make clear if the tattoos appeared on his physique whereas he was in a coma, to which he replied: “Yes” and that he “raised it with the hospital administration”.
Earlier proof was heard from cost nurse Ruth Keating, 58, who cared for the person whom she knew as Arthur Knight whereas he was in hospital.
She advised the court docket of his “distinctive” tattoos on each arms.
Addressing one specific photograph on the Interpol purple discover of Rossi, which confirmed a tattoo of a purple cross above an angel wing, Ms Keating mentioned: “That looks like the tattoo I saw on Arthur Knight.”
Is this man a fugitive rape suspect who faked personal loss of life or sufferer of mistaken id?
The two law enforcement officials who arrested the person, PC Shannon McGill and PC Jamie Crombie, additionally mentioned they recognised Rossi’s tattoos on the person’s arms in proof.
Mr Harvey put the witnesses’ statements to the person, asking in the event that they had been appropriate in regards to the tattoos on his physique, to which he mentioned sure, however that they had been barely completely different to Rossi’s tattoos on the Interpol discover.
Addressing the pictures of the tattoos proven earlier than the court docket, the person mentioned: “They were put there to make it look like I am this Nicholas Rossi.
“All I can say is that once I awoke from the coma, there have been tattoos on my particular person they usually weren’t equivalent to what seems on these screens.”
Accent ‘switched’
Mr Harvey then asked: “The employees, medical doctors, nurses within the ICU at QEUH did nothing to forestall somebody placing these tattoos in your physique whilst you had been in a coma?”
The man said in his “waking moments” he recalled there being “many, many individuals on the ward” and started to talk about apparent water contamination issues in the building before the sheriff asked him to stop drifting off topic.
When he was asked why his accent switched from posh English to other accents throughout the hearing, he blamed oxygen deprivation.
The man went on to claim his accusers had doctored the fingerprints used on his arrest warrant and that the pictures on the red notice had been “transposed”.
The man’s wife, Miranda Knight, 41, was also called to give evidence.
She told the court the reason for the man’s name changes was because he suffered post traumatic stress disorder from his childhood.
Mungo Bovey KC, defending, asked her if there was any indication her husband was Rossi, to which she replied: “No.”
Sheriff Norman McFadyen adjourned the listening to till Wednesday morning.
Source: information.sky.com”