Nobel-winning singer Bob Dylan denies sexually abusing girl in 1965

Singing legend Bob Dylan has been accused of sexual abuse by a US citizen 56 years back when she was only 12 years old.

The accuser, who is 68 years old now, and has been identified as one JC, says the star singer-writer abused her over a six-week period between April and May 1965. Dylan “exploited his status as a musician to provide [her] with alcohol and drugs and sexually abuse her multiple times at Dylan’s apartment in New York’s Chelsea Hotel,” says her counsel.

The suit demanding unspecified damages and a jury trial was filed last week at the New York Supreme Court under the state’s Child Victims Act.

The woman also accused Dylan, who turned 80 this year, of physically threatening her as a girl. JC, who lives in Connecticut (US) now, said the super star carried out “predatory, sexual and unlawful acts”, which were allegedly “done intentionally by him to her without her consent”. The suit has accused Dylan of assault, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.

The Grammy award winner’s spokesperson said that the “the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended”.

The BBC reported that for the period April to May 10, 1965, Dylan was in the UK on a tour that was documented in the film Don’t Look Back. Clinton Heylin’s Dylan chronology ‘A Life in Stolen Moments’ too says Dylan was in the UK, France and Portugal until the start of June.

Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman. He has sold more than 125 million albums in the last 60 years. His best-known songs include Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’.

Dylan was given the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, thus becoming the first songwriter to win the prestigious award.