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A bit of friendly banter is fine, but when you accuse someone of letting down their father, who had recently died from brain cancer, and then send them a death threat — well, that’s so far below the belt, it’s seeping out the hems. After placing fourth in the synchronised diving, Tom Daley received the horrifying abuse over Twitter yesterday, leading to the 17-year-old critic’s arrest this morning.
Daley, understandably upset, responded to the attack by tweeting: “After giving it my all…you get idiots sending me this…” Both fans and other athletes rushed to Daley’s defence too, while the “idiot”, Rileyy69, posted a few grovelling apologies before resorting to some frankly horrifying death threats, which he then deleted before locking his account.
That didn’t stop the police raiding a guesthouse in Weymouth and locking up the offending teenager, though. Fair enough, we were all disappointed when the synchronised diving duo missed out on a medal, but abusing him — anyone, really — on Twitter is just not on.
Anyway, it looks like the police are pretty hot on athlete-hate right now, so no matter how drunk or hot under the collar you get, don’t even consider tweeting anything negative to Team GB athletes — save yourself and everyone else the pain, and keep your disappointment aimed at the TV. [BBC]
Update: For more information on the legalities involved here, check out the Digital Report for a decent, understandable breakdown.
Image credit: Arrested from Shutterstock
I think it was more his threats to drown Mr Daley than the comments about his father that got Mr Plod involved.
And possibly his penchant for racially suspect language to other twitterers.
Well, abuse of any kind like that is a prosecutable offence, so who knows. Whatever happened, we know he was being a right dick about the whole thing.
Yeah, I have a feeling it’s more likely this kind of thing was the real issue: http://lockerz.com/s/229826962
I feel bad, I kind of find his absolutely idiotic remarks funny, a bit like the kid who would flip out at school, smash a chair and then run out of the room holding back the tears.
If you have a look through his tweet history, I wouldn’t be surprised if the police were actually more concerned about some of his other tweets.
It may be that Daley retweeting the abuse just highlighted the account to the police rather than him being questioned purely over his Daley tweets.
Probably a combination. One harassing tweet, possibly said in jest, is a whole other bag to a torrent of definite abuse.
Free speech is dead in the UK. What this guy said was horrible and it makes him a piece of shit but what he said is not an offense. We have to put up with hearing offensive things sometimes to be able to say what we want/need to. Otherwise where does it end? Anyone can be offended by anything.
Ok I didn’t know he was threatening people. He deserves what he gets then.
Actually, it is an offence: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/part/XII/crossheading/harassment-alarm-or-distress
Was going to say, you can get arrested for saying it to somebodys face, trying to hide behind a twitter account is no different.
I dont know any of the other tweets this guy twatted. But, you’re right. As far as I can tell, the only thing this guy is guilty of is being a great big douche. If that’s the premise, Cameron should be arrested.
Nanny state.
Cameron? Seriously? He is being questioned under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
As far as I’m aware, Cameron wasn’t in government back in 1994.
If thats your logic. This kid wasnt even born yet.
My logic is that blaming someone for laws that were introduced when that person wasn’t even in politics seems somewhat bizarre, but potentially breaking laws and being questioned as a result isn’t. Also that laws aimed at protecting individuals from abusive and threatening language and behaviour is hardly representative of a ‘nanny state’.
Besides, he did actually threaten Daley as well as spew forth a veritable glut of racially and sexually derogatory/aggressive tweets towards other twitterers, so it isn’t just for his general douchery.
Fair enough. I did not know about the racial and other abusive twats(as originally mentioned) Although i wasnt accusing anyone of breaking laws either. Merely douchery. Youre right, if he has overstepped the bounds of douchery into breaking the law, let justice be done.
Saying that… your logic is still flawed however.
No more flawed then wanting Cameron arrested because someone else was questioned for being a douche.
P.S. By Cameron, I assumed you meant the PM rather than James Cameron because I’m more than happy for someone to arrest him.
Yes i can understand where you are coming from,but it is an offence to threaten someone.
I called the police quite a while ago about my next doors farther`s son who knocked on my door and used the same sort of language. The police told me that they would go to his house,and in no uncertain terms if he did it again he might get a jail sentence. They then came back to my house,and told me to contact them straight away if it happened again.
Back to the Olympics, these people are trying there best to win,and i have noticed it makes me feel good when an athlete wins a Gold Medal for Britain,and i don`t evan no them.
Completely agree that that rapscallion deserves a rap on the knuckles, but being arrested? Crumbs, he’s a 17-year-old — I know I said some pretty stupid things at that age too (and still do now, arguably!)
This sets a terrifying precedent for Twitter and free speech, I must say. And like someone on Twitter pointed out — what about YouTube comments? I’ve seen far worse, and I’m betting you have too.
I’d normally agree with you, but threatening to drown someone is the same irrespective of whether it’s done by Twitter on in a face-to-face conversation.
I reckon that we’ve seen a tendency by the courts to favour the commenter when it comes to things said in jest, or where there’s obviously no real threat of harm, in the Paul Chambers case. Bear in mind that the DPP and CPS have the discretion when it comes to prosecuting too, so it could be that nothing actually comes of this. (Other than the police scaring the living daylights out of the stupid tweeter, which will probably do a decent enough job of shutting him up anyway.)
I agree, I doubt anything will actually come of this — he’s being used as an example, which, as I mentioned to another commenter on this thread, is a good move (I’ve certainly received some pretty disgusting abuse and death threats over the year thanks to my job). But, he’s young — he wasn’t thinking, and made the classic mistake of digging himself a deeper hole once he started to receive abusive replies from all around the world. That’s a hard pill for anyone to swallow.
Well said!
I never realised that being 17 was a defence for threatening to drown someone.
It’s certainly no defence, and he should damn well know better by that age. But we’ve all shot our mouths off and made mistakes — it just seems that he’s being made an example of. Which could be a good idea — I mean, I’ve been on the receiving end of many death threats thanks to writing about the ever-subjective nature of technology — but being arrested is a step too far, in my eyes.
17 is old enough to know what’s right and wrong and he just went too far. And not only that, but it’s not a 1 only time thing for him. He deserves what he gets and I hate anyone who can’t keep their spiteful little words to themselves.
A lot of his tweets have been deleted but in a lot of responses to Tom Daley and other people tweeting at him he was sending threatening messages. He also made a video abusing some other tweeter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMpvIKqtR8k (a censored mirror as it keeps going down)
He needs to do 5 years ‘community service’ in Afghanistan or Syria.
Yeuch, that’s pretty awful. Hopefully this incident will teach him a huge life lesson.
Wow, I was expecting him to be a big guy after this whole tough act, not some weedy kid.
He’s been arrested, but it’s probably not in the CPS’s interest to prosecute given the recent case with the “bomb threat”. However, this idiot will have the arrest on his record and hopefully it will give some of the other morons pause.
Ah, but did you publish them in a public forum, and make deliberate attempts to ensure a person you have never met, but were abusing, saw them?
Twitter, like a lot of internet services is very powerful tool, and people need to learn to respect them in that regard. And the law says that at 17, this guy should be responsible enough to know that.
Thank god for the TOR network then
Safe Twitter abuse all day, erry day!
How on earth can someone expressing their own opinion be classed as threatening or harressment?
He basically said “he’d let his father down”
IF this wasn’t someone on tv at the time and it was a member of the normal public nothing would have been said, it was an innocent tweet with a teenager expressing his dissapointment
Yes maybe he could have worded it better but there is nothing malicious or threatening about it.
What is this country coming to when your not even allowed to say what you feel anymore?
He threatened to drown Daley in the pool. Do you think you should be allowed to get away with that?
Action should definitely be taken over threats of violence.
That said though, its not like anyone does much about the daily threats of rape female bloggers are subjected to, or any commenter on youtube for that matter. Where is the police action there?
“i dont give a shit bruv i’m gonna drown him and i’m gonna shoot you he failed why you suporting him you cunt”
There are limits to Freedom of Speech and I think he has found them right there..
Oh the amount of irony in his tweet is outstanding. I hope they throw the book at him the little sod.
agree with the above. if being offensive was illegal then surely frankie boyle will be doing a life sentence (and i think frankie rocks btw). i guess there is more to it. threats? etc.
Hit it on the head, he threatened to drown the boy. Hardly just being offensive! Plus Frankie Boyle’s comments are made in jest when it is clearly intended to be as much (i.e. in front of an audience who are choosing to tune in or pay for a ticket to see him make ‘jokes’).
It’s all about the context.
The difference is being a comic gives him more licence to do it. Whether that’s actually morally right, is another question. But you could say it’s part of his art form.
Good point, Sambo.
(ducks down waiting for people to start at Kat for using potentially racist word)
Ha! I’m Australian — I put “o” or “azza” on EVERYONE’S names. Just ask Dazza (Darrell).
Good point and Antipodeans do seem to do that a lot….. I wonder why?
You put an ‘o’…..so you think Sam’s name is Samb?
The b is silent, like in dumb
I thought it was more pronounced in a Rambo-Sambo kind of way
Now that’s more like it. Screw Sambo, just call me Rambo
First of all, they’re still the 4th best male syncronised diving pair in the world, which is a great acheivement. Secondly they should stick that teen at the top of the 10m platform and tell him to jump. Maybe drain some of the water out of the pool first just for giggles.
Just curious; but what do you lot think..
Could the above post be construed as offensive and threatening?
Where does the line start and stop? If my words are direct that is over the mark, if they are hypothetical its okay?
Don’t flame, I’m curious to opinions..
What will happen to anyone who sent Rileyy69 a threatening message?
If you watched the YouTube video of him posted above then you’d have a different view. This kid doesn’t even have enough class to be on The Jeremy Kyle Show ‘-)
It’s a fair question to be answered and highlights the problem inforcing laws in these type of scenarios.
The thing is, he’s gone and deleted half of his worst tweets. The death threats, abusive language, harassment… this guy should be punished somehow.
Send him here: http://tinyurl.com/d8et6ml
As Kat said, kids do stupid things (and he’s obviously still a kid) but they don’t always get to see the consequences of their actions. There’s so much off-hand bad behaviour on the web that goes without punishment it’s become the norm to use online forums to vent ugliness. Shit, just look at Youtube.
On the face of it this seems to be a very heavy handed response by the police but maybe it’s the first chance Rileyy69 has had to really confront his actions & reflect on them.
I kinda see this as the equivalent of a beat copper of old giving a juve miscreant a clip around the ear.
It might make Rileyy69 a better person.
Looking at the Youtube video I seriously doubt this is the 1st time he’s been in trouble with the law.
Probably got a regular cell at the local police station, yet magistrates I expect keep giving him ‘one more chance’.
Instead of a clip around they ear, I liken it to a tazer shot around the downstairs playtime area.
I can dream can’t I?
You’ve got to move with the times I suppose
Threatening to shove a knife down someones throat isn’t banta or and off hand remark its a deliberate threat.
No it wasn’t.
It was tough talk bullshit from a teenie keyboard warrior.
While it’s debatable whether they will prosecute the little douche, I am totally fine with them making an example out of him. I hate the fact that the internet has given rise to “hard” boys/girls who, because of the extra layer the internet provides, they just spew so much vitriol at the world and think they are untouchable.
Add to that the threats, be they in jest or not, the fewer of them around the better.
He’s 17 yes, but it’s never too early to get the little ass scared straight.
Televised apology to Tom Daley and his mother in the middle of the Olympic Stadium? That ought to embarrass him into not being such a twat.
I like that
Nah, his sort like the publicity….probably end up on Big Brother (sigh)
So true.
I like this guys approach on how to address his nephew’s behaviour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbhWVhxK1w
Old school.
Is racism illegal now? I’m all for cracking down on racist idiots, I’ve had a few experiences with such people but I don’t know the legal standpoint, can someone clear that up for me? We’ve always had abuse on the internet but why are the police suddenly allowed to raid your house for flaming on the internet, I feel like I missed something important?
You’ve missed the bit about threatening to drown someone and that any form of bullying whether in person or hiding behind a keyboard should be stamped down on.
This ridiculous notion that the ability to type means you should have a free pass to abuse, insult and threaten other people needs to stop. It is not what free speech means.
I totally agree with you that bullying, racism and abuse is not acceptable but what I don’t know are the laws behind rectifying the problem. I have noticed that in recent months, maybe years, I have heard more and more stories about people hurling abuse on twitter, which as we know is nothing new on the internet, and earning themselves a visit from the police.
Racism’s been illegal for some time now – CDA 1998 (s.29-31), POA 1986. It’s not just racism, obviously, but specific offences, but it’s all there.
The main change in the legal position is that the CPS can now more easily gain access to information on who is behind unnamed or anonymous accounts.
Thanks, I was wondering why there are more and more cases of people being visited by the police for their online slurs
Those references were stabs at what I used to remember a lot better, think they’re right, but not 100% sure…
If laws are being broken, and there’s a consistent pattern of inciting hatred or psychological abuse then this course of action is justified – then age should be factored in as it would be for any crime.
But if it’s due to public outcry because someone has been rude to a likeable public figure, isn’t that just a old fashioned lynch mob?
It would seem in this case, with the rapscallion in question’s other twitter abuse it is actually the former…
It was probably the abuse to Daley that got him noticed but probably tweets like this that got him a trip to the nick: http://lockerz.com/s/229826962
In my opinion he should be put in prison for a couple of months surrounded by real murders. Then he might get taught a lesson or two (up the bum) about what being a real murderer is like before he goes around in public threatening to murder others.
Wow… Sam/Gizmodo, this is a pretty poorly researched story.
You’ve left out the most important fact…
THIS GUY THREATENED TO KILL TOM DALEY.
(and that was after he apologised!)
I watched in horror as the whole thing grew in to a firestorm on Twitter last night. That kid absolutely deserved to get arrested.
Just read your post after posting mine. I agree 100% – anyone reading the increasingly abusive tweets from this clown last night would realise why he was arrested. Shame the reporting on the subject has been so piss poor across the board.
I think the way the media has been reporting this story is not helping. Every media outlet on which I’ve seen this story references the tweet about Tom Daly’s dad and neglects to mention the threatening tweets (not just the one about drowning Daly, there was also one in the last 24 hours to another Twitter user threatening to shove a knife down his throat).
I’m all for freedom of speech but there has to be a line drawn – threatening somebody with drowning or being stabbed isn’t on, whether done on-line or not.
Unfortunately because of the way this story is being reported it makes people think Riley69′s been arrested simply for the distasteful tweet mentioned in the article above. The news outlets should be making sure they make it clear why this kid was arrested, and highlighting the fact that he made clear threats, and why this case is different to that of Paul Chambers.
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of price this, or the next generation will have to pay for all ‘this sort of stuff’.
At least we (and I’m generalising here, sticking us all into the same box) were fortunate enough to be able to have our rants, our idiotic statements, our embarrasing opinions ‘in real life’, as it were, and could be forgotten about as time went on, and hopefully, lesson learned. Something to look back on as an adult, older and wiser and be glad that you’re not that person you once were, thankful that they are nothing more than humorous footnotes in your mind.
This generation however, has a real problem with these events being recorded, catalogued and analysed, hanging around, impeding chances of getting a job, progressing in life.
I mean, I doubt it highly, but what if this kid had a complete turnaround and wanted to become a respected human rights lawyer, or make his way through the cut throat world of politics?
Literally, he now stands no chance. For something he otherwise would have ranted about to his mates and which would have literally been forgotten about moments later, only these days. Bosh, let’s get this Twittered.
Even this generations kids are going to see these remnants of their parents childhood days, fair enough my kids are going to be able to see a fair few photos of me with dodgy haircuts/fashion crimes, OK more than a few, but really how are this generation going to be viewed by their kids when they grow up?
Something tells me that we’ve not lost a rocket scientist here.
Definitely not! I just think at least a few of the current “young ‘uns” are going to be in for a bit of a ‘life hangover’ when they hit their mid-twenties, and their prospective employer does a bit of googling on them.
Simply due to the lack of foresight you have at that age, and the ease at which you can make a public arse of yourself these days.
Having said that though, you only have to watch Big Brother (well, you don’t HAVE to, clearly) to see that fully-fledged adults are at it too, so maybe my original comment means absolutely sod all.
The flip side is that these people end up somehow making money out of their internet sleb statuses, thus moving higher up the food chain than they ever would have in the first place.
It’s people like this that make me ashamed to be a teenager.