Police make arrest over tweets to diver Daley

Britain's Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield (R), who took fourth place, are seen after the men's synchronised 10m platform final during the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre July 30, 2012.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man on Tuesday after offensive tweets were sent to British diver Tom Daley when he failed to win a medal in his first event at the London Olympics.

The Olympic poster boy and his partner Pete Waterfield were in with a chance of clinching the host nation's first gold of the Games in the synchronized 10-metre platform event on Monday, but fluffed their fourth dive and wound up just outside the medals.

Daley, whose father Robert died from cancer last year, repeated a tweet from user @Rileyy_69 to his followers that said: "you let your dad down i hope you know that".

The diver responded: "After giving it my all ... you get idiot's sending me this."

The user later apologized.

"A 17-year-old man was arrested by Dorset Police officers in the early hours of this morning, Tuesday, at a guest house in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communication," police said in a statement.

"He is currently helping police with their enquiries."

(Writing by Tony Jimenez and Matt Falloon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)