A British diver involved in a rescue mission in Thailand has filed a lawsuit for libel against Elon Musk after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO called him a “pedo guy”
Diver Vernon Unsworth, who played a pivotal role in the rescue of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach who were trapped in a cave earlier this year, sued Musk on Monday, according to a lawsuit filed in a U.S. district court in California.
{mosads}The lawsuit stemmed from attacks Musk directed at Unsworth after the diver blasted Musk’s attempt to assist the July rescue mission at Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand.
Unsworth dismissed the child-sized submarine Musk had envisioned to help in the rescue efforts as a “PR stunt.”
Musk responded to the charge in a spree of since-deleted tweets and referred to Unsworth as a “pedo guy,” a slang term for pedophile.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit brought against him.
In July, Unsworth told Agence France-Presse that he was considering legal action because of the accusations Musk made.
Unsworth’s lawyer, L. Lin Wood, later wrote a letter to Musk in August that threatened a possible lawsuit for “false and defamatory statements,” Buzzfeed News reported.
“You published through three different tweets to your twenty-two million followers that Mr. Unsworth engages in the sexual exploitation of Thai children, and you did so at a time when he was working to save the lives of twelve Thai children,” Wood reportedly wrote. “You did so without any basis. According to a subsequent Twitter post, you did so out of anger.”
Musk apologized in July for calling Unsworth a pedophile, saying that his “words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths.”