Elon Musk Vs Cave Diver Round Three: Musk Sued By Diver After Saying “I F****** Hope He Sues”
Musk recently said: "I fucking hope he sues me".
The man Elon Musk called a “child rapist” is now suing the billionaire for defamation, just weeks after Musk said, “I f****** hope he sues me”.
Cave diver Vernon Unsworth has brought the case to courts in both the US and the UK. Unsworth was part of the team that saved 12 Thai teenagers and their coach from a flooded cave system in July.
“From July 15, 2018, to August 30, 2018, Musk periodically utilised his Twitter account and emails to the media to publish to the world false and defamatory accusations against Mr. Unsworth, including accusations of pedophilia,” the court complaint reads.
The feud between Musk and Unsworth goes back to the Thailand cave rescue two months ago. In July, Unsworth basically told Musk to shove his submarine up his arse, after Musk tried to make a mini-submarine that could save the stranded children. (Experts have said that the sub, which arrived on site after eight of the boys had already been rescued, wouldn’t have worked).
Musk responded by questioning whether Unsworth was even at the cave rescue and then labelled him a “pedo”, publicly, on Twitter, where Musk has over 22 million followers. Musk has since deleted the tweets.
Everyone has their white whale, Elon Musk's just happens to be [squints] proving a literal hero to be a pedophilehttps://t.co/Wj4D8H0Bcs
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) September 4, 2018
Then at the end of August, Musk doubled down. He tweeted that he thought it was strange that Unsworth hadn’t sued him yet — which ignored the fact that Unsworth’s lawyer had already emailed a legal letter to Musk outlining an intention to sue.
Unsworth’s recent court submission includes an email Musk sent to Buzzfeed News on August 30, after they published an article about the saga, in which Musk writes:
“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you f****ing a**hole.”
“I hope [Unsworth] f****** sues me,” Musk also told Buzzfeed News.
Unsworth is looking for just over $100,000AUD in compensation.
You can read the full court submission here.