Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has been sued by a woman who claims he sexually abused her in 1965 when she was 12, an allegation the Nobel Prize winner has called "untrue".

The lawsuit filed last week on behalf of JC, now a 68-year-old woman living in Greenwich, Connecticut, alleges that Dylan, then 23 or 24-year-old, exploited his status as a musician to provide (the plaintiff) "with alcohol and drugs and sexually abuse her multiple times".

A spokesperson for Dylan, now 80, said the "the 56-year-old claim is untrue and will be vigorously defended."

According to Deadline, in the papers filed at the New York Supreme Court under the state's Child Victims Act, JC said the abuse took place at Dylan's apartment in New York's Chelsea Hotel for over a six-week period from April-May 1965.

As per the complaint, JC claims that Dylan established a connection with her to lower her 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 lawsuit cites causes including assault, battery false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seeks compensatory, punitive and exemplary damages.

Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, was already a popular name in the New York music scene during 1960s, performing and writing songs that gave voice to the anti-war and Civil Rights movements.

Since then he has been honoured with multiple Grammys, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize for Literature.