A fugitive who faked his own death acted as a legal adviser to a “male supremacist hate group”, aiding individuals accused of sexual violence against women, it has emerged.
Nicholas Rossi, 36, is accused of raping two women in Utah before fleeing across the Atlantic in an attempt to evade justice.
He was deported from Scotland in January after a judge ruled that he was a liar and a fantasist who had masqueraded as an innocent Dublin-born academic known as Arthur Knight.
The Sunday Times has seen documents which show that Rossi served as head of the “judicial accountability committee” for the controversial Texas-based men’s rights group A Voice for Men (AVFM).
Despite being a registered sex offender with no legal qualifications he offered advice to men accused of rape and molestation and was said to have actively encouraged them to try to intimidate and discredit their alleged victims.
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In previously unpublished documents from 2013 Rossi, going by the name Nicholas Alahverdian, referred to women who spoke out against violent partners as “money-stealing, hate-mongering beasts”.
He said that his goal was to inspire “the growing community of men’s human rights activists around the world”.
“I can think of no better organization to work for than AVFM in ensuring that the tentacles of the feminist minotaur are tamed,” he wrote.
“If we deploy the legal, intellectual and social resources of AVFM to those in need, at the same speed of the pulse of the beasts of false accusing, child usurping, money stealing and hate-mongering then we are contributing to the progression of society.
“Let’s rock”.
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Paul Elam, the organisation’s founder, welcomed Rossi as their “legal analyst”, writing: “I am certain his dedication to this cause and management of the fine details necessary to get the job done correctly will serve us well into the future.”
Rossi took on the role after being convicted of sexually assaulting a student, Mary Grebinski, at a community college in Ohio in 2008.
He was fined and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 15 years after he pinned the 19-year-old against a wall and molested her while she begged him to stop.
“He said: ‘Shut up bitch, I’m almost done,’ and then ejaculated on the wall behind me. I was 19”,” Grebinski, now 35, said.
Rossi made failed attempts to overturn his conviction, citing bogus and crudely doctored social media messages in evidence, and even attempted to sue his victim for causing him “emotional distress”.
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While working for AVFM Rossi circulated numerous articles which wrongly declared Grebinski to be a “false accuser” and described her as “sex-crazed and psychotic”.
He published her home address and defamed her in an essay entitled My Personal 9/11, in which wrote: “Her acts are tantamount to flying planes into my twin pillars of personal success and public service.”
AVFM vouched for Rossi’s character at that time, stating: “This man is likely innocent. We also believe that his basic civil rights have been denied by a system beset by rape hysteria.”
Grebinski told The Sunday Times she had received no apology from the group. “Their site published articles which smeared my character,” she said. “Not only that but they hosted the 9/11 article which helped him to connect with like-minded others.
“Nick named me on their site multiple times as a ‘false accuser’.”
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Prosecutors in the United States claim that DNA from Rossi’s attack on Grebinski matches a sample taken from an alleged rape in Utah.
After his conviction Rossi carried out attacks on women in at least four states over a decade, according to the US Department of Justice.
In 2012 a 21-year-old woman told police in Utah that she had been attacked by Rossi, who bruised and bit her and said it “turned him on” when she said “no” to sex.
Kathryn Heckendorn, 34, claims she was repeatedly beaten and violated by Rossi after they were briefly married in 2015. “I had a black eye, a knife to my throat,” she said. “He would rape me constantly.”
Grebinski and Heckendorn are among a number of women who accuse Rossi in the Channel 4 documentary series Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From the Dead.
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Rossi flew to Dublin in 2017 before making his way to London, Essex, Bristol and Glasgow, where he was arrested in a Covid ward following an international manhunt in December 2021.
He circulated a bogus obituary in America that claimed he had died of cancer, a week after marrying Miranda Knight, 41, from Bristol, in her home town in February 2020.
Rossi had been living in a flat close to Glasgow University with his wife and two dogs, telling neighbours, falsely, that he was a theology lecturer.
He alleged he was reliant on an oxygen mask, was unable to walk and had never set foot in the US, but the claims were dismissed by a Scottish court.
Earlier this month Rossi was warned he was likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after insisting on defending himself against rape charges in Utah.
In an English accent, despite being born and raised in Rhode Island, he told Provo district court he had studied law at Bristol University but was unable to provide any evidence.
Rossi, expected to appear again on June 11, denies all charges and continues to maintain he is Knight.
In 2018 the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a civil rights group, described AVFM as a “male supremacist hate group” which had once declared October to be “Bash a violent bitch month”.
AVFM, which denies endorsing violence, did not respond to a request for comment.
