Elon Musk: I didn’t know Briton was cave rescuer when I called him pedo guy

Billionaire Elon Musk has told a court his “pedo guy” jibe at a British rescue diver was an insult to a man he thought was “creepy”, rather than a genuine accusation of paedophilia.

The Tesla founder is being sued for defamation by Vernon Unsworth over the 2018 Twitter comment, made during the rescue of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.

Mr Musk, 48, had offered to assist the perilous underwater bid but Mr Unsworth — later awarded an MBE for his efforts — turned down the offer and suggested it was little more than a “PR stunt”.

In a TV interview, Mr Unsworth, 64, said the billionaire’s idea of using a small underwater vessel in the cave rescue would not work and he should “stick his submarine where it hurts”.

Mr Musk insisted in the Los Angeles court he did not know who Mr Unsworth was when he then posted a series of messages to his 30 million followers on Twitter, saying: “I just thought he was some random creepy guy the media were interviewing. I thought at the time he was unrelated to the rescue.”

Giving evidence, Mr Musk admitted the Twitter spat had been “not classy” but insisted the “pedo guy” comment was nothing more than an insult.

He said he watched Mr Unsworth’s TV interview and called it “an unprovoked attack on what was a good-natured attempt to help the kids — it was wrong and insulting, and so I insulted him back.”

He told the court: “I assume he did not mean literally to sodomise me with the submarine, just as I didn’t literally mean he was a paedophile. There are a lot of things that I say... not all of it is completely thoughtful.”

Mr Unsworth’s lawyer, Lin Wood, said the diver will tell the court of “his worries, his anxieties, his concern at being branded a paedophile” following Mr Musk’s tweet.

Mr Musk admitted he had paid $52,000 (£40,000) to a private investigator — later exposed as a fraudster — to dig up evidence against Mr Unsworth.

His lawyer, Alex Spiro, told jurors the “pedo guy” comment was “a joking, deleted, apologized for, responsive tweet”.

South Africa-born Mr Musk claims the phrase is commonly used there to mean a “creepy old guy” rather than being an allegation of paedophilia. The case is expected to last a week.