Teenager arrested after sending abusive tweet to Tom Daley
Dorset Police say 17-year-old is helping them with their inquiries
By Sophie Curtis | Techworld | Published: 15:17, 31 July 2012
A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications, after he reportedly sent an abusive tweet to Team GB diver Tom Daley.
After coming fourth in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving event on Monday, Daley received a message from Twitter user @Rileyy_69, telling him he had let down his father. Daley's father died in May 2011 from brain cancer.
Daley retweeted the message to all of his followers, commenting “After giving it my all...you get idiot's sending me this...” and received a flood of supportive messages from fans and other competitors.
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The user later posted a tweet apologising for the comment before his Twitter account was suspended.
“I'm sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I'm just annoyed we didn't win I'm sorry tom accept my apology,” it said.
Dorset Police said the teenager was being held at a guesthouse in Weymouth, and is currently helping police with their inquiries.
Deputy mayor of the Olympic Village Duncan Goodhew described the behaviour of the Twitter user as "appalling".
“I suppose that social media in one sense is fantastic, but turned the wrong way round it is very, very personal and it destroys people's lives,” said Goodhew.
“So I think people should be much more careful about what they say.”
Comments
stk33 said: So now hurting someones feelings is malicious and arrestable crimeIm not sure if Communist Russia or China ever did something like that to their citizensToo bad the boy has apologized and is now helping the police with their inquiries rather than suing for false arrestBesides isnt it sweet that the offended athlete has chosen to file police report on that
hooksie said: It might not have been a very nice thing to say and was indeed offensive but arrestable Nonsense The guy apologised after understanding what hed done that should have been the end of it Too many people being done for saying stupid things we live in a country with free speech and that means you will be offended at some point