A teenager who verbally abused British diver Tom Daley on Twitter has been arrested. 18-year-old Daley had placed fourth in the men's synchronized 10m platform diving on Monday, prompting a teenager to hurl abuse at him. Daley tweeted "After giving it my all...you get idiot's sending me this" and retweeted a message he received from the 17-year-old teenager, which said: "You let your dad down i hope you know that."

Daley's father Rob Daley had passed away from brain cancer in May last year.

The teenager had also tweeted: "hope your crying now you should be why can't you even produce for your country your just a diver anyway a over-hyped pr*ck." He continued to tweet hateful comments to the Olympian, saying: "you really didn't try your best tommy you said you'd do your country proud and you let us all down rather support a tramp tbh."

The user apparently apologized for his hateful words, saying: "I'm sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I'm just annoyed we didn't win I'm sorry tom accept my apology." He later added: "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."

However, despite apologizing to the diver, the user continued to abuse him shortly afterwards, posting: "i'm going to find you and i'm going to drown you in the pool you cocky tw*t your a nobody people like you make me sick".

Police confirmed that the 17-year-old boy was arrested in Weymouth, but it is not clear whether he was arrested for the tweets to Daley or for tweets to other users.

Rob Daley was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2006. Tom credits his dad for inspiring him to compete in the Olympics. Before competing, he told the BBC, "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."

Tags: tom daley olympics diving london 2012 olympics