Defiant British wife who's standing by her preposterous American 'conman and rapist' husband after he astonished the world: How Miranda Knight went from a lonely life working at a Bristol B&Q... to being caught up in FBI's international manhunt for him

The Somerset wedding of Miranda Knight and Nicholas Brown in February 2020 was a notably odd affair. The groom, for example, had no friends or relatives present and had to ask the bride's brother to be best man.

When it came to the paperwork, the space for his father's name was left blank because, he claimed, he was an orphan who had grown up in Irish children's homes and knew nothing of his family history.

In reality, Nicholas Brown wasn't even his real name. He was actually called Nicholas Rossi – and had also gone by the name of Nicholas Alahverdian – and was a convicted American sex offender wanted by the FBI, who'd fled the US accused of rape and sexual assault.

The handful of guests who witnessed the nuptials at St Nicholas Church in the village of Whitchurch and toasted the happy couple with Pol Roger champagne, all before waving them off on honeymoon to Salcombe were ignorant of this, however.

They were also oblivious when, a week later, the groom faked his own death from cancer via a series of phone calls to acquaintances in the US. The calls were made by a woman with a West Country accent claiming to be his widow.

Nicholas Rossi, with wife Miranda Knight, is now the subject of a Channel 4 documentary which starts on Monday

More, later, of the bizarre calls made by the mysterious widow 'Louise' – but it's perhaps worth noting that Louisa is Miranda's middle name. And she was born in Bristol.

Eventually, detectives caught up with Rossi when he was in hospital in Scotland suffering from Covid. For more than two years he was at the centre of a fascinating legal wrangle as prosecutors tried to deport him back to the US, where he faces charges of rape.

Rossi, 37, and his new wife insisted he was the victim of mistaken identity, but their outrageous claims spectacularly collapsed thanks to fingerprint analysis - and a set of highly distinctive tattoos. Rossi lost his final appeal against extradition in December and was flown to the US in January this year.

He is now the subject of a Channel 4 documentary which starts on Monday, but while much attention has already been heaped upon the thrice-married US swindler with 16 different aliases, who currently calls himself Arthur Knight Brown, the lingering mystery at the heart of this jaw-dropping saga is the flame-haired British woman who has been his steadfast supporter.

Miranda, 42, steered the electric wheelchair her husband claimed to need because of the effects of long Covid. She also didn't bat an eyelid when he theatrically collapsed into her arms during a farcical TV interview in April last year during which he attempted to prove he couldn't walk (though medical experts described his legs as 'strong and athletic').

Nicholas Brown wasn't even his real name. He was called Nicholas Rossi – and had also gone by the name of Nicholas Alahverdian – and was a convicted American sex offender wanted by the FBI, who'd fled the US accused of rape and sexual assault

So how did a woman who, just a few years ago, was advising customers on paint colour choices at B&Q in Bristol, become embroiled with the subject of an international man hunt?

The Mail spoke to those who knew Miranda long before she became involved with Rossi and was thrust into the international limelight.

They recall a talented artist with a bohemian taste in flowing dresses, bright colours and new-age therapies; a woman whose former image is a world away from the conventionally dressed wife who appeared on TV, denying her husband was the fugitive Nicholas Rossi and insisting: 'Arthur is my husband. I love him very much and he's not this person.'

'You don't forget Miranda in hurry,' says Angela White, who taught Miranda 'applied colour psychology' in London around a decade ago.

'She was very beautiful, a really lovely lady and actually very, very nice,' she says. 'I always thought she was going places but I didn't think it would be anything controversial like this. It's dreadful that she's caught up in it.'

Before the B&Q job, Miranda was a mosaic artist, exhibiting at galleries and craft fairs around the west of England. She studied art at both the University of Portsmouth and Southampton Institute for Fashion Design and offered prospective clients 'Colour Your Castle' and 'Colour Your Wardrobe' consultations as well as 'colour x-rays' to discover your 'inner colour consciousness'.

Before the B&Q job, Miranda was a mosaic artist, exhibiting at galleries and craft fairs around the west of England

Stunning photographs on her now defunct website showed her posing confidently in a bold red and purple dress, sporting turquoise nails, her face daubed with paint.

'I believe in harnessing the power of colour to energise or calm, ground or uplift and shape the quality of life,' she wrote.

Photographer Drew Gardner worked with Miranda in 2018 when she took part in a nation-wide project titled 'BowWow Haus', creating eye-catching dog kennels inspired by Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, which were later auctioned for charity. She used her mother's toy poodle dog, Oscar, to model for the shoot.

'I cannot emphasise enough what a very nice person she was,' says Drew. 'She was very friendly and warm. She was a very striking woman. She had an Amazonian stature with a shock of red hair that made her really distinctive and she had a magnetic personality with a big smile.'

Her Bristol home, he recalls was 'a bit messy and shabby'. 

Stunning photographs on her now defunct website showed her posing confidently in a bold red and purple dress, sporting turquoise nails, her face daubed with paint

'We turned her living room into a studio and had to move all this furniture out of the way.

'I did ask: 'Isn't your boyfriend around to help us?' And she said he was not really interested. She said a few things to indicate that she was not getting the attention she wanted.

'The vibe I was getting was that she was quite lonely. I would say that she was the kind of person who gets taken advantage of.'

Was the boyfriend to whom she referred Rossi? According to Miranda's account, given in a February 2022 interview with US channel NBC, she said she met her husband at London's V&A in 2012 and 'struck up a conversation in the museum talking about art.'

She added: 'We didn't get together at that point because I was with somebody else. But we sort of kept in contact.

'Quite a few years ago we got back in contact and I was in a position where we could meet up because I wasn't in a relationship. So our romance started from there.'

Nicholas, 37, and his new wife insisted he was the victim of mistaken identity, but their outrageous claims spectacularly collapsed thanks to fingerprint analysis - and a set of highly distinctive tattoos

Her future husband was the son of a waitress and violent father with a vast criminal record. He was born Nicholas Alahverdian in Rhode Island in July 1987, but later took the surname of his stepfather, David Rossi.

His troubled childhood is well documented: behavioural and mental health issues saw him made a 'ward of state' in his early teens. He was placed in care homes from which he was frequently expelled for allegedly assaulting other children. His own stepfather has described him as 'devil's spawn'.

Claiming he had been abused while in care, Rossi made a name for himself as a charismatic teen campaigner for child care reform, impressing local politicians until a more sinister side to his character emerged.

Miranda, 42, and her husband in the electric wheelchair he claimed to need because of the effects of long Covid

In 2008, at the age of 20, he was convicted of a sex attack on a student in Ohio. He spent years trying unsuccessfully to sue his victim for defamation, a pattern of behaviour he subsequently adopted towards anyone who dared to challenge him.

His first marriage, in 2010, lasted six months before his wife took out a restraining order and divorced him. His second wife, Kathryn Heckendon, managed seven months married to Rossi in 2015. She said he was violent and claims she discovered journals containing the names of women he planned to stalk.

'When he yells,' Heckendon said, 'you feel like your soul is being sucked out of you with how much passion he puts into his anger.'

Rossi's alleged crimes are numerous. Aside from multiple claims of fraud and extortion, he is accused of raping a former girlfriend in Utah in 2008 and of stalking another woman.

Nicholas Rossi, right, and his siblings Diandra, centre, and Joseph, left, in front of Engelbert Humperdinck's tour bus in 1995

Four other women in Rhode Island have filed complaints against him, including one who says he forced her to withdraw money from a cash machine for the dinner he bought her after she refused his advances.

In June 2017 he turned up in the UK, at the Essex home of a single mother he'd met online and persuaded to let him stay.

'From the moment he walked in, he psychologically and emotionally wore me down,' the woman told the Daily Record in 2022. 'It was everything from gaslighting to manipulation.'

Within days, 'pushy' Rossi was talking about marriage and calculating how long it would take to get his residency. The woman, who claims Rossi raped her, said she only got rid of him after changing the locks. By that time, she had handed over £3,600 of her savings.

'He said he had now sacrificed his whole life to be with me,' she said. 'In the space of five or six days I was completely broken down.'

In October last year, Essex police arrested Rossi on suspicion of rape. He had not been charged by the time of his extradition but the investigation remains active.

Two years later, in 2019, he turned up in Bristol. According to Miranda's older brother, Kevin Knight, a 47-year-old builder, Rossi claimed to be a PR consultant and online marketing executive from Dublin.

A map showing the trail of havoc and alleged criminal behavior. Rossi's 'crimes' are numerous. Aside from multiple claims of fraud and extortion, he is accused of raping a former girlfriend in Utah in 2008 and of stalking another woman

He described his brother-in-law as a 'master manipulator' who had conned his 'in denial' sister, before pair married the following year.

A week after the wedding, associates of 'Nicholas Alahverdian' back in the US were told that he had passed away from cancer in the UK – his ashes scattered at sea.

The bearer of these sad tidings was his British widow, 'Louise', who began calling newspaper reporters and Rhode Island politicians, encouraging them to leave messages on an online memorial wall dedicated to 'Nicholas Alahverdian', 'warrior' for children's rights.

Claiming to be calling from Switzerland, she also requested a funeral mass for her late husband, demanding music by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. The service was later cancelled on the advice of US detectives already on Rossi's trail.

When 'Louise' was challenged by US journalists, she emailed: 'Unless my husband was cloned and died in my arms and faked cancer diagnosis, treatment and heart disease/heart attacks for months before that, he passed away. In my arms.'

Miranda's brother added further intrigue, however, when he insisted that 'Louise' wasn't Miranda. 'That's an obvious no,' he told a US newspaper.

His second wife, Kathryn Heckendon, managed seven months married to Rossi in 2015. She said he was violent and claims she discovered journals containing the names of women he planned to stalk

But a BBC podcast, I Am Not Nicholas, used a voice expert to compare recordings of 'Louise' and Miranda – concluding they were the same woman. When challenged about this, Miranda refused to respond to the claims.

Meanwhile, the charges and claims against Rossi keep coming. A Canadian TV host called Nafsika Antypas has accused Rossi of swindling her out of the equivalent of £23,000 in 2020.

She claims she hired 'Nicholas Brown' after advertising online for someone to produce a promotional campaign for her vegan lifestyle business, which she wanted to expand to the UK.

Just three days before Rossi's 'death', and four days after their wedding, Miranda and her husband became directors of a new limited company, Nafsika Global Holdings. He was managing director, Miranda listed as a business executive, while Nafsika was the company's owner.

It was Rossi who had suggested bringing Miranda's 'expertise to the table'.

Nicholas was placed in care homes from which he was frequently expelled for allegedly assaulting other children. His own stepfather has described him as 'devil's spawn'

Nafsika recalls: 'Nicholas asked if he could bring her on to help with his tasks for me. I said no problem. I had a few conversations with her. She was quite lovely, quite sweet. She seemed like she was sincerely a nice person.'

But when 'Nicholas Brown' failed to deliver the work he was paid for, Nafsika challenged him. She says she then received threatening emails – some of them purporting to be from Miranda.

'Talking is the first step to moving forward, even if it's just the two of us,' said one. 'Otherwise Nicholas will continue to explain to people online what you did to him and that won't be good for your brand... I know Nicholas better than anyone and I can tell you that he will not let this go ...'

It is not clear if Miranda knew what Rossi was doing or whether she believed her work for Nafsika was genuine.

Meanwhile, the charges and claims against Rossi keep coming. A Canadian TV host called Nafsika Antypas has accused Rossi of swindling her out of the equivalent of £23,000 in 2020

In 2021, Miranda and Rossi – by now re-invented as Arthur Knight – moved to Scotland, setting up home with their two dogs, Oscar and Toby, in a rented, book-filled apartment in Glasgow's West End, furnished with bibles and pictures of Winston Churchill. They told neighbours he was an academic at the city's university.

But behind the scenes the FBI had accessed Rossi's iCloud account and were closing in.

In April that year, photographer Drew Gardner received a bizarre email from Miranda at 6.30am. Headed 'urgent', she wrote: 'I have an urgent situation and am politely requesting that my name and website and any photos be removed from the bow wow Haus [sic] site for privacy reasons.'

Drew says: 'The tone was so different to all the previous, friendly messages.'

She later emailed again, apologising and adding: 'It's just an old boyfriend that popped up and I am trying to avoid the stress and drama.'

He now wonders if the email was from Rossi who was trying to erase all trace of the couple online.

Scottish police finally arrested Rossi in December 2021 as he lay in Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow recovering from Covid.

But while on bail, he and Miranda hosted several journalists at their apartment, denying that 'Arthur' had ever set foot in the US.

The bizarre interviews they gave raised more questions than they answered and ultimately backfired.

Until she saw Miranda on TV, Nafsika says she had considered 'reaching out to her'.

'I thought she didn't know what he was doing,' she says. 'I thought she was being tricked. My theory changed when I saw her with him on TV. I think she's complicit.'

The Mail attempted to contact Miranda on various occasions and through various channels but no comment was forthcoming. Her version of events therefore remains unknown.

A week after the wedding, associates of 'Nicholas Alahverdian' back in the US were told that he had passed away from cancer in the UK – his ashes scattered at sea 

Rossi was initially given bail but that was revoked in July 2022 and he remained in custody until deportation.

This week, he appeared in a court in Utah where he turned down a defence attorney, saying he would represent himself and that he had a legal degree from Bristol University. Given his history of fibbing – he was described by a judge in Scotland as 'dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative' – this is a dubious claim.

On the basis that the groom is not who he said he was, Miranda could have a case for having her marriage declared null and void under UK law.

But she is believed to still be standing by her husband, though it's not known if she is in the US or remains in the UK.

As her dormant Twitter account says, it appears she's still 'loving him for the amazing husband he's always been'.