Notorious fugitive Nicholas Rossi was praised by Bob Dylan’s publicist for supporting the singer on a sick website.
The American-born conman had created an online news site on which he named and abused a woman who’d been accusing his idol of sexual abuse. And he was able to convince the singer’s publicist Larry Jenkins into talking to him by putting on a posh English accent and posing as a blogger called Arthur Knight.
At the time Rossi was on the run from the FBI over allegations of rape after faking his death in his home state of Rhode Island and hiding in a Glasgow flat. The Sunday Mail has heard a recording of a phone call between Rossi and Jenkins which took place in September 2021.
Rossi had just launched his website which discussed Dylan and the claims made against him by an American woman who had claimed the star sexually abused her in the 60s when she was 12. The folk singer, 81, strongly denied the allegations made in August 2021 from the woman who was identified in court documents only as “JC”.
The allegations and court case were dropped by the woman in July last year. Dylan fan Rossi had tracked down representatives of Dylan including Jenkins and his lawyers, Brian Ascher and Jeremy Bunting, to discuss the claims.
They’ve denied any involvement with Rossi in revealing the woman’s details online. In the call with Jenkins, Rossi said: “I said to myself, I know this woman, somehow I will find her and I’m not going to let her suffocate my hero, my legend.
“I’ve never met Dylan, I’m not one of those people who thinks Dylan speaks to them in his songs – I’m not mad. People all across the world have emailed me to say ‘thank you, I can sleep at night because my hero is not guilty and it’s because of you, Arthur’.” Jenkins responded by praising Rossi.
He said: “You were asking are you being helpful. If you make a serious allegation in the UK, you can be sued and have to pay legal fees so people are much more careful. That’s not the case in the US. The libel laws are completely different.
“I’d have liked to have said ‘this never happened, it’s all made up’...but you can’t say that. Here in America, there’s a feeling they have to have the right to speak their truth. So our hands are tied.
“You’ve been incredibly helpful to Bob Dylan. Lawyers are not going to say that to you but Larry can say that to you.”
Victims and alleged victims of sex crime usually have their anonymity protected – but Rossi boasted on his website about having a “world exclusive” in revealing who the woman was. He used fake identities and names to call her legal team to obtain more details about the case and also tricked the alleged victim into talking to him on the phone, posting the audio online.
In the call with Jenkins, Rossi said: “I set up a website so I could help identify where the case went wrong. And how she is not well in the head.”
Jenkins replied: “What you are doing has been the only pushback from the media... is being really appreciated.”
The call was made in Rossi’s flat in Glasgow with his wife Miranda in the room. The Sunday Mail contacted Jenkins and Dylan lawyers Brian Ascher and Jeremy Bunting. Jenkins declined to answer questions on the phone.
But a spokeswoman for Dylan said: “After the lawsuit was filed, many people came forward claiming to have information disproving the plaintiff’s claims, which were false and heinous.
“Mr Dylan’s team was in contact with these people, including this individual calling himself Arthur Knight. They’d no idea of his real identity. No one associated with Bob Dylan had any involvement with the publication of the plaintiff’s name.”
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