A YouTube star who filmed himself replacing the icing in an Oreo with toothpaste before handing it to an unsuspecting homeless man was sentenced to over a year in jail and banned from the video platform.
Kanghua Ren, known as ReSet online, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay a 20,000 euro ($22,300) fine in Madrid, reported El Pais.
While Ren was sentenced for the cruel prank, “he is unlikely to serve any time behind bars, as Spanish law normally allows sentences under two years for first-time offenders in nonviolent crimes to be suspended,” reported The New York Times.
The verdict was widely reported on in Spanish media; it included the judge banning Ren from YouTube for five years. It wasn’t immediately clear if the website would comply in full with the order.
Kanghua Ren, a YouTube prankster known as ReSet to his followers, has been given a 15-month prison sentence for offering a homeless man in Barcelona an Oreo cookie filled with toothpaste. He must also pay 20,000 euros to the man. https://t.co/0qI0CSp8J0
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 2, 2019
Ren was 19 when he filmed himself giving the toothpaste-filled Oreo to the homeless man, who was identified as Gheorge L., a man in his 50s who was born in Romania.
Gheorge L., whose parents died when he was young, said that he’d never been treated so badly.
“I found myself ill at five minutes and vomited,” he explained, helped by a Romanian interpreter, reported El Pais last year. He said that he had never been treated like that, that “everyone behaves well” and that in the bar where he went to vomit they often offer him “food and clothes.”
Ren was widely criticized after posting the initial video; to try to make amends, he gave the homeless man a €20 bill and later offered €300 if the man didn’t file a lawsuit against him.
YouTuber Kanghua Ren has been convicted for a prank involving a homeless man and Oreo cookies filled with toothpaste. #7NEWS https://t.co/tXmJQR1bbc
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) June 3, 2019
A YouTube influencer in Spain was sentenced to 15 months in jail and 20,000 euros for posting a video in which he offered a homeless man biscuits stuffed with toothpaste. | @AFP https://t.co/qHCK0A8k0c
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) June 3, 2019
“I do things to mount a show: People like what is morbid,” he told the court during the proceedings. In the video, which was later deleted, he said, “This will help clean his teeth—I don’t think he has cleaned them since he became poor.”
Court documents obtained by El Pais indicated that Ren earned more than €2,000 from the initial video.
The judge, Rosa Aragones, said that there was “a clear and unambiguous act of humiliating content” and that the consumption of the toothpaste caused “physical suffering” including vomiting, reported El Pais.
YouTuber involved in Oreo toothpaste prank sentenced to prison https://t.co/sT98uThg0N
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 3, 2019
At the time of making the video, ReSet had 1.1 million subscribers and 124 million views on his videos. The Oreo incident was prompted by a challenge from one of his followers.
Kanghua “humiliated and vexed a vulnerable person, homeless, of a much older age, who does not speak the official languages and has deteriorated due to street life and alcoholism,” the judge said.
“This was not an isolated act,” the judge added, according to the Times, adding that Ren in the past showed “cruel behaviors” toward “easy or vulnerable victims.”
