US rape suspect Nicholas Rossi has been extradited from Scotland to America after a long-running battle.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “We assisted partner agencies with the extradition of a 36-year-old man”.

It comes after appeal judges recently quashed Rossi’s appeal against the extradition.

The order followed a long-running extradition battle in which Rossi was ruled to be a man wanted by authorities in Utah for the alleged rape of a woman in 2008.

US law enforcement claim he is a fugitive who faked his own death – even setting up his own memorial service – and fled to the UK to evade justice.

He repeatedly argued he was a victim of mistaken identity and was instead an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.

Rossi first came to the attention of authorities after he became ill with COVID and was taken to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December 2021.

In November 2022, Edinburgh Sheriff Court ruled that his tattoos and fingerprints matched those of Rossi.

Rossi claimed they had been inked on him by a rogue NHS employee when he was admitted to hospital.

The case played out over a number of years in Scottish courts, but Sky correspondent Connor Gillies said the extradition brings “an end a huge game of cat and mouse he played with the legal system”.