UPDATE: Teenager Who Sent Malicious Tweets Issued Warning

Following on from our news item earlier on today, which reported on the arrest of a Weymouth teenager for sending malicious tweets to Team GB diver Tom Daley, it has been confirmed that the teenager in question has been released with a harassment warning from the Police following the incident.

The incident, which sparked anger on the popular social networking website Twitter, took place yesterday afternoon, after Tom Daley had finished 4th in the synchronised diving event.

The Police issued a brief statement that the teenager was released on bail after being given the warning “pending further investigation”.  It is believed that the Police want to look into other communications sent by Rileyy_69 via his Twitter account, however the nature of the other tweets being investigated and who they were directed at is not currently known.

The 17 year old boy from Weymouth sent a tweet to Daley saying “You let your dad down i hope you know that.” to which Daley responded “After giving it my all…you get idiot’s sending me this…”.

It is likely that Rileyy_69 could have been guilty of offences under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 (as amended) which states:

Any person who sends to another person—

(a)a [letter, electronic communication or article of any description] which conveys—

(i)a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;

(ii)a threat; or

(iii)information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or

(b)any [article or electronic communication] which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,

is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated. 

(From Legislation.gov)

If the definition of the word indecent is taken as:

1. Not conforming with generally accepted standards of behavior or propriety; obscene.
2. Not appropriate or fitting.

it could be seen to come under section 1 b) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 (in our completely non-legal point of view!).

Tom Daley has made no further comment on the matter on his Twitter account.