Vern Unsworth, a British cave explorer who helped rescuers save 12 children and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand last week, may sue Elon Musk after the tech billionaire appeared to accuse him of being a pedophile.
Musk had developed a miniature submarine device as a possible method of bringing the children out of the cave, but Unsworth said the vessel “had absolutely no chance of working,” and was “a PR stunt.” The children and coach had been trapped since June 23, until they were finally freed on July 10.
In a now-deleted series of tweets, Musk responded by saying he never saw Unsworth in the caves, implied that he’d prove the submarine could have gotten to where the kids were located, and called Unsworth “pedo guy.”
“We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” Musk said. He then said, “bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
In response to this, Unsworth said, “I believe he’s called me a pedophile. Well, (if) by definition rescuing 12 young boys…that puts everybody in the same context.” When asked by a reporter with Nine Network if legal action was a possibility, he stated, “Yes, yes, it’s not finished.”
As for Musk’s submarine? It was never used, and Unsworth simply stated that Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”
[Image via screengrab]