Country music promoter Conn convicted of rape

An 82-year-old former concert promoter is facing prison after being convicted of raping two teenage girls.

Briton Mervyn Conn – known for his work with agent Joe Collins (father of Joan and Jackie) and for staging the pantomime-themed Beatles Christmas Shows in 1963, Melody Maker’s pop package shows at Wembley Arena in the ’60s and, most famously, the International Festival of Country Music, also at Wembley, which ran until 1991 and returned for one year in 2012 – forced himself on two victims in two separate incidents in the 1970s and ’80s, Kingston crown court heard.

The first, a 15-year-old who had been hired as a “cowgirl” for a 1976 Wembley show, described Conn as a “dominating person; very egotistical. He had this bouffant hair, smelt like cigars, looked almost…

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