A complaint was filed on Sunday, July 2, 2023 against youtubeur TheKairi78. He has been accused by a woman of drugging and then raping her. The video artist denies the accusations.
Youtuber TheKairi78, who has over 3.8 million subscribers on YouTube, has been accused of drugging and then raping a woman. A complaint against the videographer has been filed, Le Parisien learned on July 3, 2023, and the Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, the newspaper reports.
TheKairi78, whose real name is Jaoued Daouki, is a well-known YouTube name. After starting videos in 2011, in which he could be seen playing video games or talking about his life, he had recently launched on Twitch, where he had 1.8 million subscribers. His account was banned on July 4. Contacted to find out if the ban had anything to do with the complaint, Twitch had not yet responded to our questions at the time of publication of this article.
❌ Twitch Partner "TheKAIRI78" (@TheKairi78) has been banned! ❌https://t.co/tBsxBw9uHO#twitch #ban #firstban #partner #twitchpartner 🐩
— StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) July 4, 2023
TheKairi78 accused of drugging and raping a woman
According to Le Parisien, the events took place on the night between Saturday July 1 and Sunday July 2, 2023. The youtuber is said to have spent the evening with “an acquaintance” in the bar of the Peninsula, a luxury hotel in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The evening is said to have been “alcoholic”, and the youtuber is said to have taken the woman home, where she lost consciousness. “She believes she was drugged without her knowledge, with a product poured into her drink, before being raped,” explains Le Parisien.
When interviewed by the newspaper, TheKairi78 explained that he believed it was a consensual relationship, and denied having drugged the complainant. He did, however, admit that they were both in an advanced state of inebriation, that they had had several drinks, and that the woman had even been sick on several occasions as a result of the alcohol. On Twitter, the youtuber also said he “firmly rejects these allegations”. He has yet to comment on his ban from Twitch.
TheKairi78 had already made news in 2020, when he announced that he was in a relationship with an underage girl aged 16, even though he was 33. While the relationship was consensual, it still caused a scandal, so much so that the youtuber quickly put an end to the story.
TheKairi78 is not the first French youtuber to be accused of rape or sexual assault. Since the hashtag #balandetonyoutubeur was launched in 2018, many alleged victims have spoken out, denouncing behavior by certain videographers. In December 2022, Norman Thavaud (Norman Fait Des Vidéos) had been taken into custody and accused by 6 women of rape and corruption of minors; and an investigation into Léo Grasset (DirtyBiology) was opened in September 2022 following accusations of rape.
Numerama also investigated ExperimentBoy, a youtuber (1 million subscribers) accused of corruption of minors by a dozen of his fans, who allegedly took advantage of his influence to request nude photos and videos, and InThePanda (300,000 subscribers), a videographer accused by several alleged victims of sexual assault, corruption of minors, and rape.