News

16-y-o stripper bares all

By ANDREA DOWNER, Staff Reporter

The 'Las Giddys' nightclub in Portmore where the 16-year-old stripper was arrested over the weekend. - Ricardo Makyn

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Marsha Reid, one of two teenage go-go dancers apprehended by police during a raid on 'Las Giddy's Nightclub' on Port Henderson Road in Portmore, St. Catherine, was placed in a Government-owned girl's home when she appeared before the Spanish Town Juvenile Court yesterday.

Marsha had been working at 'Las Giddy's Nightclub' for a little over a week when police from the Bridgeport Police Station raided the club in the pre-dawn hours last Saturday morning and held both girls, arrested the proprietor and charged him with operating without a licence and employing minors.

The police told THE STAR that the nightclub, which has been operating illegally since October last year, offers live sex on stage two nights per week. Those nights are dubbed 'Freaky Nights'.

Marsha told THE STAR that she landed the job at 'Las Giddy's' when she responded to an advertisement in a daily newspaper that read, "Exotic dancers and masseuse needed."

She is from one of Jamaica's rural parishes, and when she packed her bags and headed to St. Catherine, she left behind a five-month-old daughter, whom she said she gave birth to after being raped.

Despite the fact that she will be separated from her daughter for at least two years, Marsha did not seem perturbed. Her grandmother will care for the child. Not that it really matters to the 16-year-old stripper. "Mi no want har," Marsha said of her infant child.

She said she intended to give her baby up for adoption when she was born but her grandmother discouraged her and offered to take the child whom she claims she has no feelings for. When asked if she loved her baby she said bitterly, "Wha' name so? Mi no know dah feeling deh."

Marsha's journey to the stage at the 'Las Giddy's' night club began long before two weeks ago when she left her hometown. During an hour-long interview, she related a tale of abuses, lack of love and parental guidance, and bad peer influences which resulted in her dropping out of high school from grade 10 to tackle the challenges of the world head-on.

She has been on the wrong end of many of those challenges. A string of unfortunate occurrences also precipitated her decision to abandon childhood and simply assume the role of an adult as she was engaged in a number of adult activities which had been thrust upon her.

Mother, father missing

Marsha said she has never met her mother. She said she does not know what she looks like. She claims that she has never even seen a picture of the woman who gave birth to her. She told THE STAR that her mother has been living in the United States for as long as she could remember and her only contact with her has been via the telephone, and that was only on a few occasions.

She met her father for the first time a few years ago and shortly after that meeting, they fought and she said he threatened her and told her to leave her grandmother's house where he also lived. She still bears the visible scars of that run-in. She showed THE STAR a mark over her right eye and another on her left hand which she said were inflicted by her father. She said he had been deported from England.

She told THE STAR that she moved out and moved from yard to yard, staying with people in the district for about four months. Eventually, she said, one of her friends told her of a house that she could share with a young man who lived by himself. She said she moved into the house and not long after he raped her one night while she slept. She became pregnant.

There are indications that Marsha tried, if only on two occasions, to rise above the hard blows that life had dealt her and try to turn her life around. She said she completed a two-month receptionist course at an institution in Kingston but she could not land a job, despite several attempts to get one. She said she had to pay $600 to travel to Kingston and back and many days she had no money to buy lunch.

She said she enjoys singing as well as dancing and she entered the 'Rising Star' competition in April this year. She said she made it to the semi-finals but did not make it to the top five selected to advance to the next round.

The night of her arrest, she broke down in tears when she was told that she would be placed in a girls' home. "Mi no waan go no reformitary school," she insisted, as tears streamed down her face. Yesterday, in court her worst fear was realized. Life had just dealt her another cruel blow.

Name changed on request.