A dancer who is one of the stars of a gay sex tape that is currently circulating in western Jamaican says that he was forced to conduct the acts after being drunk or drugged at a photo shoot.

The 23-year-old young man, Maury, says he posed fully clothed for some pictures in 2004 for a website and remembers drinking and then waking up with a headache the next day. Now three years later a tape has emerged from the same shoot showing him and another man engaged in oral sex, but he says he does not know how that happened.

The tape shows Maury and the man performing oral sex on each other and him allegedly having sex with another man. It is extremely popular and is not only a hot seller privately, but is also being shown in an adult club in that section of the island.

But the popularity has come with a price. The tape is affecting him and his family. "Mi girlfriend haffi leave her work because people see har and a say things and she can't take it anymore. All mi can do fi cope a drink , but that nah work."

Die soon

Maury says that as a dancer his career is being affected because he can hardly attend events for fear of what the repercussions might be. This, he says, has affected his ability to care for his two children. He has accepted that he may die soon because Jamaicans are homophobic and could attack him; "Everybody have to dead one day, but me know seh mi innocent."

He also said, "Fi hear seh something happen to me that I don't even remember, it just bother me."

The father of two says he has always been a heterosexual, but he says there is no doubt that he was on the tape committing the acts. He says while he has only glimpsed the tape his family has watched it and they all conclude that it was him. "Me neva do a thing willingly. Mi know di bredda wid the website (that was responsible for the photo shoot) and him seh mi sign to it but I don't remember doing that," he said.

Maury said that he was paid approximately $6000 to do the shoot with two women for the website. However he said prior to the shoot, they drank some beers and other liquor. The next thing he remembered was waking up with a pounding headache the next day. "I felt like I had a dream, but mi coulden remember it," he said.

He said since the tape surfaced last month, some people called and asked him for $150,000 bribe to prevent it being released. Maury says he taped the conversation and went to the Sav-la-Mar police where he played it for them and later three persons were arrested, one of whom he knew. These men, he claims, were later released without being charged.

Efforts by THE STAR to confirm the arrests were unsuccessful as the police station's phones rang without an answer.

Now, although his life is in shambles, Maury says he has not thought about getting counselling. He notes however that in an effort to remain sane he and his girlfriend have moved from western Jamaica to a safer community.

He says all he wants is to be treated normal again. "Mi woulda love go back and go out with my friends and be all right but mi nuh waan live back there," he said.

Name changed for the protection of the individual