Elon Musk has been sued by Vernon Unsworth, the British diver which Tesla’s chief executive claims is a pedophile and child rapist.
Unsworth filed the suit in California and is seeking $75,000 in compensation and an injunction against Mr Musk to stop further allegations. A separate suit will be filed shortly in London, BBC reports.
The diver wants the lawsuit to “punish [Musk] for his wrongdoing and deter him from repeating such heinous conduct.”
In the immediate wake of the Thailand Cave Rescue in mid-July, Unsworth said the mini-submarine created by engineers from Musk’s SpaceX was useless for the rescue and suggested Musk shove it “where it hurts.”
Musk subsequently took to Twitter to attack Unsworth character. The outspoken billionaire first referred to Unsworth as suspicious and later called him “pedo guy.”
“You know what, don’t bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” the infamous July 15 tweet read.
On July 18, Musk publicly apologized about his comments, saying “his [Unsworth’s] actions against me do not justify my actions against him.” However, in early September, Musk renewed his attacks on Unsworth in an email sent to Buzzfeed News.
“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole,” Musk wrote.
The entrepreneur went on to claim that Unsworth is an “old, single white guy” who has been living in Thailand for “30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.”
Musk added that he hoped Unsworth would sue him and asserts that the diver turned down free legal services.