Elon Musk heads to court for defamation trial for 'pedo guy' tweet
Defamation suit is brought against him by Vernon Unsworth, a British diver
San Francisco: Multi-billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk is set to testify this Tuesday in a defamation suit brought against him by Vernon Unsworth, a British man over "pedo guy" tweet, who helped with the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooding Thai cave in July 2018.
Recently, Musk's request to dismiss the defamation was denied by a Los Angeles Judge.
US District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles ruled that a jury will have to decide whether those tweets count as recklessly negligent.
Last year, twelve boys and their coach were trapped in the Tham Luang cave complex, were rescued after a week-long intense drama.
Musk offered to assist the rescue mission by providing a submarine but the request was turned down on the ground that it would be unworkable. He later lashed out saying that he would make a video proving that his "mini-sub" would have been successful.
Unsworth took on Musk in a widely-shared interview, saying the "mini-sub" "just had absolutely no chance of working".
In response, Musk tweeted several things, now-deleted, "Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it."
Then, a month later, he called Unsworth a "child rapist" in an email.
Unsworth sued two months later in a Los Angeles federal court, saying Mr Musk falsely branded him a paedophile and child rapist.