Daley Twitter Troll Arrested - Dorset Police

A 17-year-old was arrested at a guest house in Weymouth on Tuesday morning after malicious tweets were sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley, Dorset Police have confirmed.

Police intervened after a Twitter 'troll' accused Team GB diver Daley of letting down his late father by finishing outside the medals on Monday.

Daley and his partner, Pete Waterfield, finished fourth in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving final.

Shortly afterwards, Daley retweeted a message from user Rileyy69 which said: "You let your dad down i hope you know that."

Daley responded by tweeting: "After giving it my all... you get idiots sending me this..."

Daley's father Rob died last year from brain cancer.

After the insensitive tweet had provoked a furious reaction on the social networking site, Rileyy69 attempted to apologise.

He then tweeted: "@TomDaley1994 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."

He later added: "please i don't want to be hated I'm just sorry you didn't win i was rooting for you pal to do britain all proud just so upset."

Dorset Police subsequently confirmed they were investigating the incident and an arrest was made on Tuesday morning.

A police spokeswoman said: "A 17-year-old male was arrested by Dorset Police officers in the early hours this morning at a guesthouse in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communications.

"He is currently helping police with their inquiries."

Deputy Mayor of the Olympic Village Duncan Goodhew, a gold and bronze medallist in swimming at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, described the behaviour of the Twitter troll as "appalling".

"It is appalling that people behave that way. Becky Adlington, in fact, suffered probably far worse abuse, as well, if you remember the kerfuffle some years ago," he told ITV's Daybreak.

"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.

"So I think people should be much more careful about what they say."

OSM Supports #stopthinktweet

Silver for Daley and Waterfield

Tom Daley claimed his second World Series silver medal inside a week after an impressive performance alongside Peter Waterfield in the platform synchro in Beijing.

After claiming second in the individual platform in Dubai last weekend, the 17-year-old proved his Olympic medal hopes are just as strong in the synchro.

After an injury-interrupted start to the year Daley and veteran Waterfield have started to prove their world-class credentials, returning a score of 437.40 to take silver.

That represented their best international score since they claimed gold almost 12 months ago at the World Series meet in Sheffield.

Since then they have failed to reach the podium in a global competition to cast some doubt over their Olympic hopes.

They reached their lowest ebb last month when criticism over Daley's work ethic and media commitments from British Diving performance director Alexei Evangulov came at the same time as they could only manage seventh at the World Cup in London.

But after overcoming their injury problems, and a solid block of training, the duo have steadily improved to rediscover their best form.

They were narrowly tipped into fourth place in the opening leg of the World Series last week before today's result, which saw them beaten only by Chinese duo Yanquan Zhang and Yuan Cao.

Silver Daley in Dubai World Series

Great Britain's Tom Daley finished second in the 10m platform final at the World Series in Dubai on Saturday.

The 17-year-old, who won the event in 2009, was beaten by world number one Qiu Bo, from China, with the United States' David Bouidea in third.

Daley said via Twitter:

"Wooop! Silver medal at the world series in Dubai, very pleased with the way it went."

On Friday, he competed in the in the 10m synchronised platform final with Pete Waterfield, finishing fourth.

The pair were two points behind third, as Chinese pair Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan recorded a 10 en route to victory.

Tonia Couch was fourth in the women's 10m platform, but teenager Jack Laugher could not reach the springboard final.