Bob Dylan accused of sexual assault (in 1965!) when he was 20

i believe he was 26 at the time.

Born 24 May 1941

IMO it's ridiculous how can there be any proof either way after 56 years!!!!

It's not ridiculous - just very difficult to prove either way.

Nazi war criminals are convicted over 70 years after the event.

Smileless2012. 56 years or not, there is rarely proof of this type of sexual abuse. It is 1 word against another.
As someone who was abused as a 12 year old by a 22 year old, the whole process is traumatising and can take years and years to be able to speak about it. Please all of you, do not speak of what you do not know.

Unfortunately I do have personal experience Scentia so know how traumatising it is and extremely difficult to talk about. I'm sorry that you have suffered this too.

I think it is wrong that any celebrity is named and as yet un proved allegations made public. If he was 'unknown' this allegation wouldn't be in the public domain.

I agree. They wiped the floor with Cliff Richard and the allegations proved unfounded I believe.

Shock horror,another one looking at the £ sign.
Jump on the band wagon why don`t you.
Pathetic beyond belief.

I find it quite disturbing when ancient cases come forward like this.
Does it mean that anyone can accuse anybody of anything from anytime?
I am very sorry for your horrible experience Scentia and Smileless but what is to be gained after so many years?

There was proof with convicted Nazis, documentary and personal accounts. This accusation against Bob Dylan will more almost impossible to prove after all these years.

Not saying it could be true, but all the groups in those days had their teenage fans. And who asked for their birth certificates?
I'm not excusing either. it was part of the culture at the time.
So look out all the elderly rockers still around.

It was indeed part of the culture of the time. I'm not condoning sexual abuse, but there are varying degrees, from 'someone touched my bum' to rape. Impossible to prove after so many years.
The Nazis were not being charged with sexual abuse, though. They were convicted years later of horrific crimes against humanity, not for fondling teenagers.

That's right Kate Cliff Richard's accuser was a prolific liar and he was so distressed about the way it was so publicly handled he re settled in America.

Thank you Grammaretto. My abuser was never brought to justice so I know how awful it is to live with that knowledge but I agree with you "what is to be gained after so many years".

Those were my thoughts too Jabberwok Nazis weren't convicted on the word of one person, there was a lot more information and evidence available to secure their convictions.

12 years old. Is that now a teenager in GN world.

isn't this a civil suit, so not a criminal charge, different burden of proof, balance of probabilities.
the plaintiff has a right to seek redress through the courts.
it is for the court to decide whether the case succeeds.

It seems wrong that Bob Dylan has been named but not the accuser. How on earth can anything be proved or disproved after 56 years?

I was abused back in the 70's when I had just turned 13. I have the GP's records if I wanted to revisit the incidents with the police. I have friends I told what had happened and they arranged for me to be taken by the GP by some 6th formers, one who is now a Dr herself working with abused women - I was her first realisation that this happened and she remembers the trip clearly. I realise now that the Matron/House Mistress must have allowed all this to happen because there was no way we'd have got out of boarding school without her or the house mistress knowing.
So after nearly 50 years, there is evidence of my complaint aplenty. Maybe the complainant against Bob Dylan is the same. Incidentally, to those who are thinking his back catalogue sales might be the reason, it is just these sort of comments that make a complainant not want to come forward. I heard the GP say, "Young girls sometimes make these things up. She's not a virgin but she does ride a horse!" I still can't bring myself to come forward because I worry whether I am to blame in any way. whether I would be believed and, as it was a family member, the fallout from that.

yes, i am surprised why so many esp older women seem to be dismissive of, minimise, the reported sexual abuse by other women/girls.
i think this is one thing that is better in the younger generation.

i mean reported by,..
abuse of...

what you have written, icanhandthemback, reminds me of an incident when i was at school.
another girl, also a weekly boarder, told me that she had been assaulted by a local boy at the weekend. we were 13-14.
she was given to drama, so i was a bit dismissive.
i said if that was so, she should tell someone grown up.
she decided the only person she could tell was the priest, probably because he was the only man around, strange as that seems now.
i think she would have found talking to any of the staff too embarrassing. then she insisted that i had to be in the room while she told him, which i found embarrassing.
all i remember is saying she wanted to see him, then i moved to the window and stared out of it.
he said he'd ask a policeman whom he knew, for advice.
the priest came most weeks. next time he said that the policeman had said that it couldn't be proved, so no point in doing anything further. so that was that. end of.
they were different times.
i never thought of advising her to go to a doc.
at the time i was a bit annoyed by her involving me in it.
there were no matrons/ house mistress there. nor 6th form.

Well I think it's quite likely and the woman is probably telling the truth.
It wouldn't be the first man in the music industry interested in young girls on the edge of puberty it seems to me. Some even wrote songs about them.

Now his name is "out there" we may find others come forward.
Why are people so keen to assume it's monetary. I have had people disclose to me 30 years later - why not 50 years? Or more.

I had one woman in her forties disclose what happened to her when she was eight. She did so because the same man, now in his 70s abused her daughter.
These things are very complicated and bound up with all sorts of thoughts and worries. It takes a great deal of courage to tell people what happened many years ago.

I agree^*Not Spag*.
Especially in the 50s-70s.
Compared with our recent feelings of freedom when Covid lockdowns were lifted, the years just post WW2 were a sudden explosion. Especially for young people.
I was around attyhe time

I wasn't dismissing the things that happened long ago but was querying what was to be gained by bringing it into the open after such a long time.
I am prepared to accept that some good will come from it in the form of protecting others from a similar fate and that goes for the perpetrator as well as the victim.