Dylan ex: I back him in sex case
Dana blasts 1965 abuse claims
A BRITISH singer who had a fling with Bob Dylan in the Sixties says she will happily go to court to defend him against historic sex abuse allegations.
Dana Gillespie enjoyed a romance with the rock legend when he visited London in April 1965 – the same month he is accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl at the Chelsea hotel in New York.
And the 72-year-old – who was 16 when she hooked up with the star, then 23 – said: “I can’t imagine he’d have been interested in a 12-year-old.” The alleged victim, 68 and known only as JC, filed a lawsuit this week at New York state’s supreme court. She wants damages and a jury trial on her claims of sexual abuse, assault, battery, false imprisonment and emotional distress. Dylan, 80, denies the allegations.
Dana said: “For sure, I would be prepared to be a character witness in court. I’d always stand up for him but I doubt if he’d need my help.
“I’m still in shock that anyone is even interested in this. You can see such garbage, violence, sexual explicitness on the internet and yet someone comes out of the woodwork to complain about something supposed to have happened nearly 60 years ago.” Dylan resumed his fling with Dana when he returned to London two years later, according to her recent biography, Weren’t Born A Man. She said: “He never, ever forced anything on me I wouldn’t have wanted.
“I don’t think any man with any intelligence would do that. He wasn’t desperate. And he wasn’t the alcoholic type, I never saw him not in his right mind, his mind was brighter than most. Dylan has gone through his whole life without any sexual scandal – and now this.”
A spokesman for Dylan, the only songwriter to get the Nobel Prize in Literature, said: “The claim is untrue. It will be vigorously defended.”