YouTuber faces jail after toothpaste prank
MADRID: A YouTuber is facing jail for filming himself giving cookies filled with toothpaste to a homeless man and then joking that they would clean him.
Kanghua Ren, who broadcasts under the name ReSet, has more than one million subscribers on the video sharing platform.
The Barcelona-based internet personality filmed himself filling the double-stacked chocolate cookies with toothpaste and placing them back in their original packaging.
The 20-year-old, who is originally from China, then captured the moment that he engaged in a brief conversation with the 52-year-old man, named by authorities as Gheorge L, before feeding him the biscuits.
After he hands them over, along with a 20 (RM96) bill, Gheorge eats them and Kanghua 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.”
Kanghua earned just over 2,000 from YouTube for advertising linked to the video, which was viewed thousands of times, according to court documents seen by Spanish newspaper, El Pais.
He is now facing a charge of a crime against moral integrity.
Spanish prosecutors are seeking two years’ jail and pursuing an order to pay
30,000 in compensation to the homeless man – a former Romanian pastor.
Gheorge said he did not know Kanghua had an online presence and wound up feeling concerned for his life. “I got sick after five minutes and threw up,” he said.
Viewers reacted angrily to the video and Kanghua, who has accumulated almost 100 million views on his channel.
“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,” Kanghua said.
Kanghua and a friend had attempted to re-visit Gheorge with the intention of spending the night with him and recording it, but police were called.
Prosecutors said Kanghua later deleted the video and offered the homeless man
300 for his silence in an effort to “reestablish his image”.
The vlogger had previously offered sandwiches filled with his cats’ excrement to children and the elderly, prosecutors claimed. – The Independent