Bob Dylan is being sued for allegedly grooming and sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in 1965.
In a lawsuit filed on Friday, the music icon is accused of giving the girl ‘drugs and alcohol before sexually abusing her at his Chelsea Hotel apartment’.
It is alleged that the 80-year-old musician used his star status to groom, gain the trust of and control the victim ‘as part of his plan to sexually molest and abuse’ her, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court papers, which only identify the plaintiff as ‘J.C.’
A representative for Dylan told TMZ: ‘The 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended.’
The suit alleges: ‘Bob Dylan, over a six-week period between April and May of 1965 befriended and established an emotional connection with the plaintiff.’
It is also claimed that the American singer-songwriter established the ‘connection’ to ‘lower [J.C.’s] inhibitions with the object of sexually abusing her, which he did, coupled with the provision of drugs, alcohol and threats of physical violence, leaving her emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged to this day.’
The suit, as seen by Page Six, claims the alleged abuse happened numerous times and occurred at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC.
J.C. is seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial.
The victim, who is now 65 years old and living in Connecticut, has claimed the emotional effects from the abuse have had a long-term impact on her.
She’s had to reach out for medical treatment, according to the filing.
The suit alleges everything the victim has dealt with following the alleged abuse ‘are of a permanent and lasting natures and have incapacitated plaintiff from attending her regular activities.’
The suit was filed on the eve of the close-out of the New York Child Victims’ Act look-back window.
The window allowed victims of childhood abuse to file suit against their attackers and the institutions that protected them regardless of how old the claims were and whether they had since passed outside of the statute of limitations.
Minnesota-born Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, has been one of the most significant figures in popular music for 60 years.
He became a celebrated voice of protest against the Vietnam War and in favor of the Civil Rights movement, with his best-known songs including Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’.
Among his honors are Grammys, an Oscar, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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