British police arrested a 17-year-old accused of sending malicious and threatening tweets towards British diver Tom Daley yesterday, according to the BBC.
The teen had been staying in Weymouth and taken into custody by Dorset Police after they were notified by the public last night. They have 24 hours to hold him before they charge him with a crime.
“Regard tweets to @TomDaley1994 – We are aware of the issue and we are actively looking into it,” the Dorset Police tweeted.
The teen, who is only known as @Rileyy_69 on Twitter, originally brought the wrath of Twitter against him when Daley posted a hateful message that @Rileyy_69 sent his way about Daley’s father. Rob Daley died of a brain tumor last year.
“After giving it my all….you get idiot’s sending me this…RT @Rileyy_69: @TomDaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that,” Daley posted.
Rileyy_69 initially apologized but quickly changed his tune after Daley’s fans continued to attack him. The Twitition that pushed to get @Rileyy_69 off Twitter has 14,063 signatures and has been active for less than a day.
Aside from threatening followers, news outlets and Daley himself, he also called him “an over-hyped prick,” “an absolute waste of space” and threatened to drown him in a pool, according to Digital Spy.
At one point @Rileyy_69’s account was suspended, though it was shortly restored. He eventually made the Twitter account private. He told followers that he would go to “the ****** police station now to sort this out.” His last tweet before he presumably entered police custory was an apology.
“night everyone and im genuinely sorry for what’s happened today just know that im actually a really nice person and i regret what I’ve said,” he tweeted.
Olympic Deputy Mayor Duncan Goodhew, a former medal winner, told ITV’s Daybreak that the behavior was “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,” Goodhew said.
Photo via Twitter