Troll's arrest is silly move by Plod

8:30am Tuesday 31st July 2012 in Editor Ian Murray's Blog Static HTML image By Ian Murray, Editor-in-chief

Tom Daley in action yesterday Tom Daley in action yesterday

There are many countries in the world where what you say gets you into deep trouble with those in authority.


This country, thankfully is not one of them.


Or is it becoming so?


This morning’s news that a teenage boy has been arrested by police in Dorset for sending a nasty tweet message to diver Tom Daley – diving partner of Southampton athlete Peter Waterfield – is disturbing.


Yes, the so-called ‘troll’ had a nasty streak and what he said – claiming Daley by coming fourth on the diving board yesterday had let down his father who died of cancer last year – was awful stuff.
But does this really warrant a knock on the door from the plod?


I think not.


This was playground stuff. Nasty, childish, hurtful: but not the stuff of arrests.


In Moscow at the moment a group of women punk rock stars are facing trail for singing songs attacking President Putin. They called the leader of Russia some fairly nasty things.

Their trail has been condemned by the West as an attack on liberty and free speech.

Comments(9)

georgetheseventh says...
11:36am Tue 31 Jul 12

Your right..thats the way this country is going..plus I thought New Labour were bad but we now have a G/ment who are prepared to tap everyone's emails and texts..lets not be too quick in future to condemn other countries..Russia..N
.Korea..China etc.
What this guy said was very distasteful and he and all who know him are well aware of it...that is punishment enough..

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fowley says...
12:39pm Tue 31 Jul 12

Ian, I think you need to re-think this post.

The guy threatened to KILL Tom Daley ...that is why he has been arrested.

I'm sure if a death-threat was made against you of one of your family you would want the police to take action. No?

You can view the death threat here (along with other insightful tweets) http://bit.ly/MgKHPZ

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good-gosh says...
10:01am Wed 1 Aug 12

The dim witted troll sits high in the branches of the internet tree, hurling stone insults at everything that moves below him. It's not surprising that sometimes someone throws a brick at him to fell him back to earth.

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Jimbo2012 says...
2:06pm Wed 1 Aug 12

I agree with the editor. Saying hurtful, unkind things like this are unpleasant but surely they can't be made illegal.

I see that the comment by 'Fowley' says that the tweeter said something more serious. This wasn't reported elsewhere. If true, it does make the whole thing more understandable. But is it true?

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fowley says...
6:32pm Wed 1 Aug 12

Jimbo2012 wrote:
I agree with the editor. Saying hurtful, unkind things like this are unpleasant but surely they can't be made illegal.

I see that the comment by 'Fowley' says that the tweeter said something more serious. This wasn't reported elsewhere. If true, it does make the whole thing more understandable. But is it true?
All true - I watched in horror as it unfolded on Twitter..

Sky News is reporting the full version of the story including threats..

http://news.sky.com/
story/967096/teenage
r-held-over-daley-tw
eets-given-warning

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Mumbert Ding says...
11:16pm Wed 1 Aug 12

Troll's arrest is silly move by Plod.............

This country, thankfully is not one of them..............

Or is it becoming so? .............

But does this really warrant a knock on the door from the plod? ............

I think not.............

Just say what you REALLY think Ian instead of creating a discussion point for readers . If you think it's wrong, just say " The police made a big mistake and should apologise" or similar.

Vacuous, middle of the road quasi journalism.

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sass says...
3:19am Thu 2 Aug 12

"Their trail"(sic) Murray? Really?
Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians.

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lowe esteem says...
1:33pm Thu 2 Aug 12

Your facetious 'street' reference to 'Plod' makes you more fool than cool Mr M and highlights this paper's split personality journalism. Whilst it does not yet put you on the wrong side of the law, it does assist anyone in creating a profile and thus discriminate.
I dare you to repeat this on your front page.
I further urge you to oversee the headline spell checking and would enterprisingly suggest a correction/apology supplement or 'pullout'.

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Woolston woman Jane says...
8:43pm Wed 8 Aug 12

Alarming, but I suppose unsurprising to see that the editor is every bit as uneducated, ignorant and bigoted as the majority of his readers. Fancy making those sort of risible mistakes!

I don't know what I'd do for a laugh if I didn't have the Daily Echo online to read. Fall back on "Femail", I guess.

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