Extremely poor taste but worthy of an arrest?

A teenager has been arrested by police investigating abuse of Team GB diver Tom Daley on Twitter.

After coming fourth in the men’s synchronised 10m platform diving event on Monday, the 18-year-old received a message telling him he had let down his father.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19059127

I was going to call you a **** but I guess that’s illegal now 😉

It might be in poor taste, but what has he been arrested for?

Edit: suspicion of malicious communications

All sounds a little cold war to me 🙄

Daley responded by calling him an idiot. I hope he’s going to be arrested as well.

It might be in poor taste, but what has he been arrested for?

For being beastly to poor Tom.

Daley responded by calling him an idiot. I hope he’s going to be arrested as well.

Hardly comparable is it ?

Well it’s poor reporting all over as only 1 or 2 places mention that he also threatened “to drown you in the pool you cocky tw*t “. I believe in free speech, but is this not a death threat? Even my rude and speak before you think type brain thinks this is actually illegal.

So I imagine he was probs arrested for that and not for saying that he had let his Dad down (which is sad, lame and rude, but not arrestable IMHO)

I despair at the state of our police and criminal justice system. John Terry, Rio-F, the guy at the airport, now this headline chasing by the cops. Someone really needs sacking, starting with Kier Starmer.

cyber bullying innit?
deserves a thick ear shirley?

Open water swimmer Keri-Anne Payne also posted: “Ignore the idiots! Not worth it.”

Lock her up.

IT wasn’t just one comment, the guy on twitter was extremely abusive and writing lots of disgusting abuse and threatening stuff, not just to Tom Daley. it isn’t acceptable that people can write stuff like that, there is an offence under the malicious communications act hence he’s being dealt with. I think in this situation it’s a sensiblea nd correct decision.

Arrested isn’t charged, if Daley made a complaint, then I guess the police have an obligation to investigate. Although if all it entails is as reported I suspect it shouldn’t be given the priority it has.

On reflection, I’m glad he’s been arrested. The message he sent to Tom was particularly nasty, and it seems to be far from an isolated incident.

I’m not too concerned about sentencing, if an arrest means that the unpleasant excuse for a human being (and others like him) learns that he can’t abuse people with impunity and hide behind the anonymity of the Internet.

Vile little toe-rag.

As Cougar said, but i read his tweets last night there were loads of them it wasn’t just the one or two about letting his Dad down or drowing him in the pool.

reading the kids timeline he’s a potty mouthed idiot.

I’m not sure that should be a criminal offence though.

He did tweet quite a few threats offering to kill people. Hopefully he’ll realize that’s not a good idea, then the world can carry on as normal 😉

I’m not sure that should be a criminal offence though.[i]

It may make other scum bags think twice before posting such offensive stuff.

From what I can gather, he sent the tweet about Tom Daley’s dad, then when Tom Daley retweeted it, apologised profusely and locked his account.

He later re-opened it and went into full-bore troll mode, with the death threats and obscenities towards other users. Probably thought he could get some small notoriety out of it, Frankie Boyle-style, which has backfired somewhat.

I’m assuming everyone knows but, just for context,

The message that got everyone’s backs up was:

@TomDaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that

Daley’s father died last year, aged 40. There was a piece about it on the telly yesterday, saying how devastated he was.

MC & Cougar +1

I’m not sure that should be a criminal offence though.

Why? If you said it to someone in the street it would be unnaceptable, so why is it by twitter/mail/phone/whatever?

Why? If you said it to someone in the street it would be unnaceptable, so why is it by twitter/mail/phone/whatever?

I’m wondering the last time the police arrested someone for saying “I’m going to kick your head in” outside a pub? Last time I saw this sort of thing, the police told everyone to bugger off or they’d step in. Surely the best thing is he gets told to wind his neck in and then assuming he does, all good.

Daley’s father died last year, aged 40. There was a piece about it on the telly yesterday, saying how devastated he was.

I agree that’s a bad thing to say and certainly worthy of extreme disapproval but is it REALLY a police matter. I don’t believe “Being a dick” is a criminal offense and if he’d shouted it at the pool, they’d have thrown him out and that would probably be an end to it. Maybe a policeman would have had a word but arrested, I doubt it.

I was going to steam in here and rant about it without knowing the full story too. The only tweet I heard was the one about his dad, and I thought it was a massive overreaction – we can’t be under threat of arrest for posting our own opinions, as misguided and unpleasant as they might be.

However, death threats over the internet? Yeah…

Atlaz it wasn’t just one comment though was it? Plus talking to people in the street about ie vicimt doesn’t want to persue is different to idiots who are keyboard warriors, they think they can write what abuse they want and get away with it. it’s simply not acceptable to hide behind a twitter account and abuse someone.

I’m wondering the last time the police arrested someone for saying “I’m going to kick your head in” outside a pub?

Irrelevant, that’s not what happened. If you’re going to come up with analogies, a better one would be posting someone abusive letters and death threats.

I’m assuming everyone knows but, just for context,

The message that got everyone’s backs up was:

@TomDaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that
Daley’s father died last year, aged 40. There was a piece about it on the telly yesterday, saying how devastated he was.

You get my back up. Can I have you arrested?

After he apologised, he posted:

@TomDaley1994 i’m going to find you and i’m going to drown you in the pool you cocky **** your a nobody people like you make me sick

Oh dear. Quite apart from the sentiment… the grammar! THE GRAMMAR!

Cougar/MC – Don’t agree sorry. I don’t view twitter as being the same as postal mail. It’s essentially a load of people shouting in the street. I’ve had people say “I’m going to murder you” in pubs but it’s not a death threat, it’s a moron saying something they think makes them sound hard. Under the law, perhaps twitter is classed the same as post but the law has a tendency to catch up with technology at a snail’s pace (it took years for ISPs to get some legal protection for what their users do).

There needs to be some sort of balance because if you go after every single bit of “malicious communication” on the internet, we will need about twice the size of the police force and massive holding pens. There needs to be SOME way to rein in keyboard warriors but arresting people is not the way.

Plus talking to people in the street about ie vicimt doesn’t want to persue is different to idiots who are keyboard warriors

I think that quote means you think a threat in person is less worrying than some lardy bugger sitting behind a keyboard? If I said I thought the bloke who threatened me in a pub was seriously threatening me, would he get arrested or would I be told to clear off?

I’ve had people say “I’m going to murder you” in pubs but it’s not a death threat, it’s a moron saying something they think makes them sound hard.

Sounds like a death threat to me. When I was on jury service, one of the cases was a chav-on-chav death treat which was a lot more subtle than that.

Some death threats have far more intent than one from a bloke who thinks you called his pint a puff or thinks you stole his parking space (had that in Croydon Ikea carpark) I’m aware.

Treatening to kill somebody is a criminal offence…. end of. I agree that most people would make an assessment of whether there was actually an intent behind the treat – but how many kids have been stabbed over something completely trivial?

Anyway – publically sending a death threat to a 16(?) year old olympic athlete during the games? If I was Dayley’s coach/family I’d want the guy arrested.

If someone threatened to kill me, I’m rather hoping that the police might be minded to do something about it.

“I’m wondering the last time the police arrested someone for saying “I’m going to kick your head in” outside a pub?”

Quite often in my experience , particuarly when it’s part of repeated abuse.

what Cougar said

It always surprises me that people think the internet should be some sort of Wild west free for all where you can act and say as you like without consequences
The right to troll, behave like a cock and abuse people for no real reason is not exactly a right I value highly or feel the need to defend. they do it for reaction if the reaction is unpleasant enough they will stop.

There needs to be SOME way to rein in keyboard warriors but arresting people is not the way.

and your suggestion is what?

Many of you seem to only have half the story. I dont know if they have been removed but the Daley ones where trivial in comparison. It was not a case of “I am gonna kick your head in” several of them were extreme and I think if you read them you would not be making silly comparisons.

JY – Pretty sure I said that a visit was reasonable. Arrest seems a bit over the top.

Also, I find some of what comes out here or is directed at people on STW quite objectionable. Is that something we should consider a police matter?

I did think it was funny how he went from abuse to apologetic when he started trending then even more abusive. I’m glad he’s getting a knock at the door from the police. I feel sorry for the kids that get this sort of abuse and the police aren’t interested in pursuing as theres no headlines to be made.

Abuse is abuse, regardless of the medium used.

What he said was not ‘objectionable’. It left that far behind when he started making threats to kill people, which is presumably what he has been arrested for.

I don’t view twitter as being the same as postal mail. It’s essentially a load of people shouting in the street.

I disagree. You post on a forum or twitter and you have published your views to the world. That carries a lot more ‘weight’ than a verbal statement (or even a written letter) that is heard but not recorded…

..as I am forever reminding posters on here… if you are not prepared to say it to your ‘target’s’ face, in public, through a MASSIVE PA system, then don’t type it. The fact you are behind a keyboard increases your accountability. It does not reduce it.