Elon Musk has been ordered to appear in court after the Tesla CEO was sued by British diver Vernon Unsworth for repeatedly calling him a pedophile on Twitter last year.
The United States District Court for the Central District of California set an October 22 trial date in a recent court filing, which rejected Musk’s attempt to dismiss a defamation lawsuit by Unworth, who is seeking US$75,000 in compensation.
Unsworth, dubbed a “hero” by many for his role in rescuing 12 Thai boys and their football coach from a flooded Thai cave in July of last year, engaged in a bitter feud with Musk after the diver said in an interview that Musk’s offer to provide a mini-submarine to aid in the boys’ evacuation was a “PR stunt” and that he could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
“It absolutely had no chance of working. He had no conception of what the cave passage was like,” Unsworth told CNN in an interview published on July 14.
“It wouldn’t have made the first 50 meters into the cave from the dive start point. Just a PR stunt.”
Just a day later, Musk went on an infamous Twitter rant in which he defended his sub and declared Unsworth a “pedo guy”.
While Musk apologized three days later following the threat of a lawsuit, he later doubled down on his pedophile claims in a September email to Buzzfeed.
“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 said in replying to Buzzfeed inquiries about a potential defamation lawsuit Unsworth’s lawyer floated at the time of the original accusations.
“He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling to or 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,” he wrote to the outlet.
“As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I fucking hope he sues me.”
The allegation was scoffed at by Unsworth’s long-term Thai girlfriend, Woranan Ratrawiphukkun, when contacted by Coconuts Bangkok.
In the court filing, US District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson wrote that Musk’s motion for dismissal of the defamation lawsuit would have been stronger if he had only tweeted an insult, but instead he “…purported to convey actual facts and even suggested that the BuzzFeed reporter call people in Thailand to confirm his narrative.”
Correction: We erroneously wrote “driver” instead of “diver” in the headline of this article. The mistake has been rectified.
