A twisted sex offender launched a global hate campaign against a woman who claimed she was sexually abused by singer Bob Dylan.
American fugitive Nicholas Rossi – who hid in Scotland to avoid rape charges – published her identity on a vile website he created after tricking her with a fake identity.
Victims and alleged victims of sex crime usually have their anonymity protected – but sick Rossi boasted about having a “world exclusive” in revealing who she was.
An investigation by the Sunday Mail has uncovered how the 34-year-old is responsible for the controversial website which Police Scotland were urged to investigate by the US woman’s legal team.
It comes as deluded Rossi is set for a formal extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday.
US prosecutors are expected to confirm he should be returned to American to be put on trial for allegedly raping a woman in Utah in 2008.
Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: “Identifying potential victims of sexual abuse is completely unacceptable.
“The very least someone in these circumstances should be able to expect is that their anonymity will be respected.
“Last week, the Scottish Government released a consultation on introducing a legal right to anonymity for anyone reporting sexual crime,
recognising just how important this is for people to feel safe to come forward and report their experiences.”
Rossi – a Rhode Island native who faked his own death in the US in 2020 after he had fled to the UK – has put forward wild claims that he is an innocent Irish-born man called “Arthur Knight”.
But evidence uncovered by this newspaper has demonstrated how that is not the case.
We’ve told how he’s used multiple names and accents and scams while making his way through the UK to avoid detection.
He can also be identified by scarring on his face and tattoos.
But it is while using some of those identities – including Knight – that Rossi posted the abusive content about the woman who alleges she was sexually abused by Dylan in the 60s, aged 12.
The legendary US folk singer has strongly denied the allegations which first emerged last August from the woman who has been identified in court documents only as “JC”.
The case is still be pursued by the alleged victim in the US courts. We are not naming Rossi’s website to protect her identity. Lawyers for the woman in the US said they spent two months last year trying to track down who was responsible for the website but only found out it was Rossi after being approached by the Sunday Mail last week.
They had dropped their hunt in September when information about their client stopped being posted.
This was the same time that Rossi fell seriously ill with Covid-19 .
He ended up up in Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where he was arrested by police acting on an international arrest warrant for the alleged rape.
The woman’s legal team told the Sunday Mail how they were conned by phonecalls, emails and links to fake identities used by Rossi. New York-based lawyer Pete Gleason said: “My client felt re-victimised by being outed as the victim of an alleged sexual abuse.
“Whoever called my office, attempting to create a false narrative, did so with the intent to shift the focus away from my client’s serious allegations.”
One of the fake identities was an “Adam Smith”, which Rossi used to call the legal team from a UK mobile number.
The Sunday Mail was able to establish that it is the same mobile number Rossi used in 2020 in a previous fraud, when he scammed $40,000 out of a Canadian TV host and producer called Nafsika Antypas.
Posing as an “Adam Smith”, he falsely claimed his mother was also an alleged victim of Dylan to get the legal team talking about their case before posting a recording of it on his website.
Rossi also used the name to phone the woman to engage her in conversation about the allegations and then posted a recording and transcript on his site.
Rossi also uses the fake ID Professor Alistair Jones, which is a name signed off in an abusive email – from an identity hiding email server – sent to the woman and her legal team.
Her lawyer’s investigation could only find one Professor Alistair Jones in the UK, who works at a university in Leicester.
The Sunday Mail contacted the respected associate professor who said he had never heard of Rossi.
A further fake link is to an English comedian and YouTube star called Alex Belfield.
It’s understood Rossi cloned the identity of Belfield’s website to suggest he was involved.
The Sunday Mail spoke to the comic who said he had been targeted using similar methods in the past and had never heard of Rossi.
It’s likely he picked those two individuals at random. Rossi’s website was picked up by thousands of followers on social media and international chat forum, Reddit.
At the rented flat which Rossi shares with wife Miranda Knight in the west end of Glasgow, he confirmed he was the owner and author of the controversial website and had been posting under Arthur Knight.
Asked about identifying an alleged victim of a sex crime, without her consent, he said: “I had her permission and if I did not, I would not have done it.
“She waived her anonymity, I asked her and she said yes.”
Rossi also claimed to the Sunday Mail that he got in touch with Dylan’s management about the claims he was publishing.
The woman’s legal team said no consent was ever given.
Hours after we spoke to Rossi on Friday, his website was taken down.
Gleason said: “If this website was indeed created by a known sex offender, that individual and anyone who supported
this nefarious endeavour should be criminally investigated. I would hope that the local authorities initiate a full criminal investigation.”
The sex offender is understood to have fled to the UK in 2017 before faking his own death in America in February 2020 – around the same time he married Miranda in Bristol.
They moved to Glasgow last year before he was arrested in December then extradition proceedings started in January this year.
He was granted bail to his flat in Glasgow where police make regular visits.
At the full hearing in Edinburgh on Friday, US prosecutors are expected to produce DNA evidence which confirms the man wanted for rape in Utah is the man who now calls himself Arthur Knight.
The US authorities want him for the alleged rape of a 21-year-old ex-girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in September 2008.
The FBI also had a warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding his foster dad, taking out credit cards in his name and running up debts of more than £146,000.
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