A teenager has been arrested after british diver Tom Daley was abused in malicious Twitter messages accusing him of letting down his late father.

The 17-year-old was today arrested at a guest house in Weymouth after malicious tweets were sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley, Dorset Police said.

Daley and his partner Pete Waterfield , from Southampton, missed out on a medal yesterday when they finished fourth in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving event at the Olympics .

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.

Speaking before the Olympics, Daley revealed his father "gave me all the inspiration that I've needed".

The 18-year-old told the BBC: "Winning a medal would make all the struggles that I've had worthwhile. It's been my dream since a very young age to compete at an Olympics.

"I'm doing it for myself and my dad. It was both our dreams from a very young age.

"I always wanted to do it and Dad was so supportive of everything.

"It would make it extra special to do it for him.'"

When news of the insensitive tweet spread, Rileyy69 attempted to apologise.

He tweeted: "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."

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 said.

"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."