Country music mogul Mervyn Conn has been arrested by police in connection with an alleged rape and sexual assault, the Wimbledon Guardian can reveal.

It is understood the 80-year-old music promoter, who helped launch the career of Nashville legend Johnny Cash, was arrested by police at Gatwick Airport on Monday, July 14.

A woman is believed to have claimed that Mr Conn, who lives in Wimbledon, raped and sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, between 1975 and 1977.

The woman reported the alleged assaults, in the areas of Wimbledon, Westminster and Wembley, to police earlier this year.

The allegations were initially made to another police force and subsequently received by the Metropolitan Police in March this year.

Mr Conn, who is known for launching the International Festivals of Country Music at Wembley Arena in the 1960s, is believed to have boarded a plane to Italy when officers took him to a police station for questioning.

He was bailed to return to a police station in September.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service's Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command are investigating the allegations.

An MPS spokesman said the arrest was not connected to Operation Yewtree, set up by police to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others.