Nicholas Rossi’s ex-girlfriend claimed he made her a “prisoner in her own home” after she met the scammer on a dating app.
Michelle Minnaar tells her side of the story in a new documentary on Channel 4 titled Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead.
American sex offender Rossi faked his own death in 2020 in Rhode Island, US, but was found to be living in Glasgow under the name Arthur Knight while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
Rossi, 36, was deported to the United States in January after spending two years fighting extradition from Scotland. His claims of mistaken identity were rejected by Scottish judges.
Victims from four U.S. states, as well as alleged victims from Canada and England, have come forward, and earlier this week Rossi appeared in district court in Utah, where he was warned he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. .
Minnaar claims she had a turbulent five-week relationship with the scammer, which saw him move into her home in Essex when he arrived in the UK in June 2017.
Nicholas Rossi’s ex-girlfriend Michelle Minnaar said he made her feel like a “prisoner in her own home” in a new Channel 4 documentary.
American sex offender Rossi faked his own death in 2020 in Rhode Island, US, but was found to be living in Glasgow under the name Arthur Knight while receiving treatment for Covid-19.
The food blogger, from Pretoria, South Africa, originally met Rossi on dating app GoCupid when he lived in the US and she lived in the UK.
At first, she said he seemed “fun and well-spoken,” saying he was a Harvard-educated lobbyist and even had a Wikipedia page and videos of his speeches on YouTube.
He soon began raising the possibility of visiting her in England, even saying he wanted to move to the UK, all before they met.
Speaking in the documentary, Ms Minnaar said: “I felt a little cheated, but if he stayed a few days it would be fine.” She paused and then added, “Then the drama began.”
What was supposed to be a brief visit for the couple’s first meeting resulted in Rossi staying at Ms Minnaar’s home for five weeks. Soon, she began demanding money from him.
The mother of two recalled: “From the moment he came in it was manipulation and deceit.
‘I wanted cash. Lots. He poured out my money like it was water.
Minnaar gave him a few hundred while he tried to “settle down” in the UK, but he demanded more and more and even said she should dress “smarter” like him.
Minnaar met Rossi on the dating app GoCupid, where Rossi used the name Nicholas Alahverdian.
She said she soon became a victim of blackmail and even rape by the famous scammer.
She said: “I felt like a prisoner in my own home because this guy won’t leave.”
He added: “I think he is an evil parasite that will jump from victim to victim.”
The terrifying situation reached its peak when he locked her in his room when she tried to leave, before raping her.
Minnaar previously said Rossi told her he “was framed” when she confronted him about being on the US sex registry.
She said she “couldn’t believe it” when she saw online that he was facing extradition charges alleging that he is a “serial liar” who “relies solely on people feeling sorry for him” because of his “intense façade of victimhood.”
Shortly after Rossi moved into Minaar’s house, she discovered that he was on the sex offender registry following a previous conviction in Dayton, Ohio, but he told her that he had been “framed by a woman who had a boyfriend.” .
Minnaar told MailOnline: ‘During our whirlwind relationship, I saw online that he was on a US sex offenders list.
“When I confronted him, he told me that he had met a girl before and that they had had sex. He later told her that he had a boyfriend. She then reported him to the police and accused him of sexual assault.
He was a serial liar. Now that I look back on our time together, there were so many red flags. He is a master manipulator. Now that I look back, I don’t understand how he was allowed to travel to the UK!’
Rossi, the man who ‘came back from the dead’, is the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary
Nicholas Rossi leaves Edinburgh Sheriff Court after his extradition hearing on July 12, 2023
Michelle said Rossi seemed chatty and interested before flying to the UK to meet her.
Minnaar claimed that Rossi raped her after she refused to have sex with him during their relationship. She also alleged that he “stole £3,600” from her.
After Rossi arrived home, she realized she was “not who she seemed” and had a “strange relationship” with her daughter while ignoring her son, who suffers from autism and global developmental delay.
Rossi is believed to have met his current wife, Miranda Knight, in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming the name Arthur Knight.
They moved to Glasgow shortly after, but in 2021, Rossi became so ill with Covid that he had to be hospitalized at the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Imposter: The Man Who Came Back from the Dead airs next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on Channel 4.
