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Artist News Legal
Bob Dylan denies 1960s sexual abuse claim
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 17 August 2021
Bob Dylan has denied a new claim that he sexually abused a a twelve year old girl in 1965.
The claim is made in a lawsuit which was filed at the New York Supreme Court last week. The plaintiff, identified only as JC, says that she was abused by the musician several times in his room at Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel. She claims that he plied her with alcohol and drugs, and also threatened her with physical violence.
As a result of this abuse, the lawsuit claims, the woman “suffered and continues to suffer from emotional and physical injury, including, but not limited to, serious and severe mental distress, anguish, humiliation, and embarrassment, as well as economic losses”.
A spokesperson for Dylan says in a short and simple statement: “The 56 year old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended”.
The lawsuit was filed shortly before the closing of a temporary window allowing childhood sexual abuse cases dating back to the 1960s to be filed with the courts in New York.
Made law in 2019, the Child Victims Act temporarily raised the age by which people who experience abuse under the age of eighteen could file claims from 23 to 55. The window on that extended statute of limitations closed on 14 Aug, the day after the Bob Dylan lawsuit was filed.
