YouTuber gets 2 years in prison for feeding toothpaste-filled Oreos to homeless man
A YouTuber from Barcelona was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday after he force-fed an Oreo filled with toothpaste to a homeless man, according to reports. The 20-year-old was charged with crime against moral integrity.
The entire act was reportedly filmed and posted on the YouTuber, Kanghua Ren's, channel ReSet. Ren's YouTube channel has millions of followers.
The clip, which was recorded in January last year, showed him filling Oreo cookies with white toothpaste and then putting them back in the packet. The video also shows him approaching a homeless man to feed the biscuits to him.
The homeless man, 52-year-old Gheorge L, eats the biscuits as Ren looks into the camera and says: "Maybe I’ve gone a bit far, but look at the positive side: this will help him clean his teeth. I think he hasn’t cleaned them since he became poor."
Reports state that the video was seen at least a few thousand times.
Spanish prosecutors are not pursuing an order for the YouTuber to make him pay the homeless man £26,000 ($ 36,000) along with a two-year prison sentence.
The homeless man reportedly said that he was not aware of Ren's online presence and had gotten sick after eating the biscuits.
"I got sick after five minutes and threw up," Gheorge L said.
Reports state that after Ren posted the video on his YouTube channel, he received a huge backlash, after which he decided to go back to see the homeless man.
"People exaggerate over jokes in the street (played) on a beggar, when surely if it’s done to a normal person they wouldn’t say anything," he said.
Ren reportedly visited Gheorge L again with an intention to spend the night with him on the street. However, an onlooker saw him and called the police, foiling the YouTuber's plans.
Reports state that Ren also offered the man £259 ($362) to keep silent about the entire incident. The video was also deleted from his channel.
When El Pais approached Gheorge L for a comment, he told the newspaper that he had never been mistreated like this during the time he has lived on the streets.