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Cambridge Student Named After Setting Fire To £20 In Front Of Homeless Man

Cambridge Student Named After Setting Fire To £20 In Front Of Homeless Man

He uploaded it to Snapchat.

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A student from Cambridge University filmed himself trying to burn a £20 in front of a homeless person and uploaded it to Snapchat.

Dressed in a white bow tie - which is one up from black tie in terms of formal dress codes - the drunk student attempts to burn the note before saying 'some homeless shelter'.

The man has been named as a Conservative Association member called Ronald Coyne who attends Pembroke college, according to The Tab.

In a statement, the Conservative Association said: "The committee 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."

Ronald Coyne. Credit: Cambridge University Conservative Association

One student who witnessed the incident said: "I was blocked from getting into my college as some chap in white tie was being excluded by the porters.

"I saw the videos of what he did the next morning, and am utterly shocked and appalled that someone would do such a thing. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the student body when I say that we condemn such actions, and arseholes."

Coyne's mum, Sandra McLaughlin, told the Daily Mail: "I don't recognise that behaviour in my son. I don't really know why he's done something so thoughtless and cruel.

"It's completely out of character. He did two years of volunteering at Stockbridge shelter homeless shop in Edinburgh when he was still at school.

"It's very surprising. We're just a normal family. We're not toffs, he's not a toff. He's been a hard-working student who is very, very lucky and aware of the privilege he has to study at Cambridge.

"It's been stressful. I'm starting to panic because I can't get a hold of him. He spoke to us after the event and said he'd done something very stupid and felt really bad about it."

He added that he had then gone out a few nights later to give out 'tea, coffee and sandwiches' to homeless people.

Credit: SWNS

His attempt to ignite the cash echoes the rumoured initiation at Oxford's Bullingdon Club - former members include David Cameron and Boris Johnson - where potential members have to burn £50 in front of homeless people.

This isn't the first time that Cambridge has ran into problems between drunken students and the homeless population of the city.

Homeless charity Embrace Cambridge's founder, George Clarke, said: "There is a disturbing precedent for intoxicated Cambridge students abusing rough sleepers in the city, 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."

Source: The Tab, The Metro and The Daily Mail

Featured Image Credit: SWNS