The disturbing social media accounts of a Kelowna man accused of torturing at least one hamster and posting the video online have surfaced.
Leighton Allen Labute, 20, was charged Friday with three counts of killing or injuring an animal and three counts of causing unnecessary pain/suffering to an animal for an incident alleged to have occurred on or around May 1, 2019.
RCMP said in a news release Monday that the abuse involves a hamster.
Labute is believed to maintain an Instagram account with more than 7,000 followers, consisting of deeply disturbing images of clay sculptures depicting sexual violence, gore and rape. Other posts include gory, often sexual, violence involving dolls.
Under an account of the same name, is a YouTube channel featuring gory claymation — a form of stop-motion animation using clay — and disjointed and disturbing personal monologues about gruesome sexual fantasies.
It is believed a video depicting the torture and killing of three hamsters was recently posted on the social media platform Reddit, prompting the internet community to alert the police.
“The funny thing about Reddit, it forces people to watch the things you do and ruins their day,” said Labute's alleged Twitter account on May 4, 2020.
RCMP say they were alerted to a video involving the abuse of a hamster on social media on May 14, 2020, and following an investigation, linked the account that posted the video to Labute.
Castanet News will not be sharing the usernames of any of Labute’s alleged social media accounts due to their overwhelmingly disturbing content. The morbidly curious who seek out the accounts elsewhere online have been warned.
Labute was released from custody after a bail hearing Monday in Kelowna. The conditions of his release are not known at this time, but Castanet will provide an update. His next court date is August 25.
