Elon Musk has doubled down on his tirade against British diver Vernon Unsworth. Just two months since he accused Unsworth—who assisted in the safe rescue of 12 young boys from a cave in Thailand’s north—of being a “pedo guy,” the embattled Tesla CEO has fired off a pair of incendiary emails in which he labels the man a “child rapist”.
In a message to BuzzFeed News reporter Ryan Mac—who covered the original attack and had asked Musk for comment on Unsworth’s threats of legal action—Musk writes: “Off the record, I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole.
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“He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.
“As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I fucking hope he sues me.”
Buzzfeed has reportedly investigated the allegations against Unsworth: searching for UK criminal records and speaking with the 63-year-old’s girlfriend, who clarified that she was 40 and had been with him for seven years. Musk’s claims could not be verified. Unsworth is now launching a lawsuit against him, The Guardian reported.
Musk’s initial “pedo” polemic seemed to be prompted by the fact that Unsworth had questioned whether his small, child-sized submarine would be of any use in the rescue mission. Musk previously apologised for levelling such damning accusations against the diver.
In a second email to Ryan, however, Musk reignites the sensitive issue of the sub.
“It is also total bs that the submarine wouldn’t fit through the caves,” he writes. “The only reason it wasn’t used was that they were able to drain almost all the water out of the caves, so the underwater portion was very short, and the monsoon arrived later than expected.”
