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A former exotic dancer is now urging women to seek safer and more sustainable ways to earn a living instead of turning to stripping for quick cash.

In an interview with THE STAR, Kim* claimed that the days when men simply enjoyed watching dancers and casually slipped $100 bills into their stockings are long gone.

"These men will beat you up over $500, believe that. It's not a nice road because dem feel like once yuh dance you do business, and dem have a right to get yuh body when dem feel like," Kim said.

Her comments follow a tragic incident in St Elizabeth on Saturday, in which an exotic dancer was stabbed to death. The victim has been identified as 34-year-old Nickesha Francis-Monfort, of Queens Way, Yallahs in St Thomas. According to police, the dancer was at a nightclub when there was an altercation with a man and a knife was used to stab her.

Kim, who was a topless dancer for about seven years, expressed deep sorrow over Francis-Monfort's death. She said she was raped by two men at gunpoint at an establishment where she danced.

"I was very polite with my supporters and there was this one guy who stick on to mi. Any time mi come a di bar come dance, Magnum would come from every direction. Him use to buy mi phone card too, and him would stay from mi start dance until mi finish," Kim recalled.

"Di man dem use to jeer him and seh him a fatten fowl fi mangoose, but him just used to laugh. Him a one a dem man deh weh old people would describe as 'simple'. Regardless, mi would still give him little lap dances," she said.

Kim said she worked at the bar as a dancer for about four years, but last March her 'little friend' and admirer became a nightmare. One night, after ending one of her steamy shifts, she headed to the restroom to change her clothes, but the man barged in.

"Mi ask him a wah dis, and next ting mi know him grab mi by mi neck and say a full-time mi run di p***y because a nuff money him spend pon mi. Mi start reach fi mi bag fi take out mi pepper spray, but by this time a next man walk in with a gun," she said.

And then another walked in. Kim said the men ordered her to perform oral sex on her 'little friend'.

"I thought it was over after I was forced to please him, but as he pulled up his pants, his friend gave the other one the gun and told me to turn back way. My legs were trembling and he was complaining that mi nah set good. The one with the gun come rest it at the side of the head and tell mi say if mi no cooperate, him a guh bruk mi foot dem and shoot mi," she said.

Kim silently prayed for help but one one came. She said the brutes left after they had their way with her. That night, she vowed to stop being an exotic dancer. She left the club and never looked back. She did not even report the incident out of fear that she could be attacked by her abusers.

A few months later, she was relieved to test negative for HIV and other STDs, but the trauma still haunts her.

"Nobody can make mi dance again. Mi a work a call centre now, and the pay a foolishness compared to what mi use to make, but man nuh like woman again and dem will kill. Dancers already a provide entertainment services by dancing, but dem think we obligated to them," Kim said.

"Mi never see back di man dem who rape mi, but mi will never forget dem. Dem destroy mi mental health," she said.

*name changed to protect identity