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10th Feb 2017

Cambridge student taunted homeless man by burning cash in front of him

He was kicked out of a prestigious Tory club for the act.

Rich Cooper

A Cambridge law student was filmed burning cash in front of a homeless person.

The footage, taken from Snapchat and sent to The Tab, showed Ronald Coyne setting light to a £20 note in the centre of Cambridge, then turning to a homeless person.

Coyne, a student at Pembroke College, has been kicked out of the Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA), with the university facing mounting pressure to expel the student.

 

Coyne was filmed setting light to a £20 note

 

The camera then pans to a homeless person across the street

 

CUCA released a statement saying they “became aware of serious allegations against a member late last week concerning his private behaviour.”

“There is no room for people who behave like that in our Association, any other University Association, or frankly our University. We determined the appropriate response to be to revoke his membership and bar him from all future events, which we did on Saturday.”

George Clarke, from homelessness charity, Embrace Cambridge, told The Tab that this was not the first time a Cambridge student to have behaved towards a homeless person.

“There is a disturbing precedent for intoxicated Cambridge students to abuse rough sleepers in the city, Clarke said.

“But as well as calling out this disgraceful behaviour wherever we find it, we can and should remember that there is a real heart for charity at this university too.”

A spokesperson for Cambridge University said that they were “aware of an incident” and that disciplinary proceedings had begun.

Images: The Tab / CUCA

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University