Vernon

Tesla founder Elon Musk has appeared in court in Los Angeles to answer a lawsuit brought by a British cave diver he called "pedo guy" on Twitter.

Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue 12 boys trapped in a Thai cave last year, is suing for defamation.

Mr Musk , The First to testify at the court, said Mr Unsworth had insulted him, so he had insulted him back.

The 48-year-old said the "pedo guy" tweet had not been meant to be taken literally.

Mr Unsworth's legal team have described Mr Musk 's now-deleted tweet as "vile and false" and are seeking unspecified punitive damages.

The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire posted The Message after Mr Unsworth publicly rejected his proposal to use a mini-Submarine to rescue The Boys , members of a football team who became trapped deep inside a Cave In Northern Thailand in June 2018 in a case That captured The World 's attention.

But in an interview on CNN after the successful rescue, Mr Unsworth called the idea a "PR stunt" and suggested The American "stick his Submarine where it hurts". Two Days later, Mr Musk wrote a series of tweets including one describing Mr Unsworth as a "pedo guy".

In his court testimony, Mr Musk - who has 29. 8 million Twitter followers - said Mr Unsworth's comments were "wrong and insulting, and so I insulted him back", adding: "It was an unprovoked attack on what was a good-natured attempt to help The Kids . "

He said he had thought Mr Unsworth "was just some random Creepy Guy " and "unrelated to The Rescue ", and That he had not expected the tweet to be taken literally. "I assume he didn't mean to sodomise me with a Submarine . . Just as I didn't literally mean he was a paedophile. "

The Tesla boss apologised to The Cave diver in court, looking directly at him and saying: "I apologised in a tweet and again in The Deposition , and I'll say it again: I apologise to Mr Unsworth. " Mr Unsworth did not testify on Tuesday.

Mr Musk 's lawyer, Alex Spiro , said in his opening statements That the term "pedo guy" was a common insult in South Africa , where the billionaire grew up, meaning "creepy old man", and described the messages as "joking, taunting tweets in a fight between men".

But Lin Wood, a lawyer for Mr Unsworth, tried to show That Mr Musk had meant what he said by citing a separate tweet in which Mr Musk , after being questioned about the allegation by other users, said, "Bet ya a signed Dollar It 's true. " That tweet was also later deleted.

Then, in an email exchange with a Buzzfeed reporter who had contacted him for comments on a threat of a legal case by Mr Unsworth, Mr Musk said, "Stop defending child rapists. "

In the packed courtroom, Mr Musk also acknowledged paying $52,000 (£40,000) to A Man who had posed as a Private Detective to dig up information on Mr Unsworth after it became clear he would be sued. The Investigator turned out to be a conman, Mr Musk said.

Mr Musk 's comments on Twitter have been controversial on other occasions and in April he reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his tweets, which also puts a restriction on his use of the platform.

The Judge has denied the defence's request to define Mr Unsworth as a "public Figure " - meaning lawyers for Mr Unsworth do not have to prove Mr Musk acted with "actual malice", lowering The Bar necessary to win the case.

Source of news: bbc.com