Nicholas Rossi apparently faked his death to escape serious criminal charges in Utah and Ohio and has been living in Scotland under an assumed name, NBC reports.

Utah County Attorney David O. Leavitt said that Mr Rossi would probably still be “off the grid” had he not contracted Covid and required medical care.

According to prosecutors, Mr Rossi faked various reports that he died in February 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Authorities will now aim to extradite him to stand trial in relation to an alleged 2008 rape and a similar 2018 attack.