China-born YouTuber Kanghua Ren has been sentenced to 15 months in jail
SCMP reports that YouTuber Kanghua Ren AKA ReSet has been sentenced to 15 months in jail for giving a homeless man Oreos filled with toothpaste.
Ren, who was born in China and raised in Spain, was also fined €20,000 after he was found guilty of an offence against moral integrity.
The video in question was published in January 2017 but has since been removed. In the video, Ren is seen replacing the cream in a pack of Oreos with toothpaste before handing it to a Romanian homeless man in Barcelona.
He gave the homeless man, who vomited, a €20 note. Additionally, Ren also gave the man’s daughter €300 to persuade her from taking legal action.
Although Ren was sentenced to 15 months in jail, he is unlikely to serve. Spanish law ends to not enforce sentences for first-time offenders for non-violent crimes.
Ren was also forced to close his channel for five years and pay compensation to the victim. He had over 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube.
“Maybe I went a little far, but let’s look at the positive side, it will help him clean his teeth, I don’t think he has often brushed his teeth since he became poor,” Ren said.
Judge Rosa Aragonés said the incident was not an isolated event and said Ren acted with “cruel behaviour” and preyed on “easy or vulnerable victims”.
Aragonés added that he had “humiliated and harassed a much older, vulnerable, homeless person … whose life had been blighted by alcoholism and living on the streets”.
The judge said Ren did it “to attract the sick attention of his followers” and to boost the advertising revenues generated by the video.
“I do things to put on a show,” ReSet had told the court. “People like sick things.”
