The British man who assisted in the rescue of 12 Thai children who were trapped in a cave is "preparing a civil complaint for libel" against Tesla CEO Elon Musk for calling him "pedo guy."
Musk tweeted the accusation against Vernon Unsworth in July, following an interview in which Unsworth criticized the small submarine Musk's company made to aid the rescue.
Musk doubled down on his claim in August, asking in a tweet why Unsworth has not sued him if what he said was untrue. BuzzFeed News now reports Unsworth is suing Musk, and his lawyer notified the CEO of this in a letter sent sometime this month.
"I have been retained by Vernon Unsworth to represent his interests in connection with the publication on your Twitter account of false and defamatory statements conveying that Mr. Unsworth is a pedophile," Unsworth's lawyer reportedly wrote in a statement to Musk.
"More specifically, you published through three different tweets to your 22 million followers that Mr. Unsworth engages in the sexual exploitation of Thai children, and you did so at a time when he was working to save the lives of 12 Thai children. You did so without any basis. According to a subsequent Twitter post, you did so out of anger."
When asked by BuzzFeed for comment, Musk responded: "Have you actually done any research at all? For example, you incorrectly state that he is a diver, which shows that you know essentially nothing and have not even bothered to research basic facts."
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