The hero of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, Vernon Unsworth takes Elon Musk to court. Today, 3rd December 2019, Musk will appear in a Los Angeles court for a legal wrestle that has been ongoing behind the scenes.
It all started around the same time the twelve school-age boys and their football coach got stuck in the Thailand cave. The world had watched with bated breath as the clock ticked towards impending floods from the coming rains.
Vernon had been one of the first to show up at the site. A British citizen living in Thailand, he devoted all his being to the rescue. The rescuers themselves said they relied on his knowledge of the caves.
But, Elon Musk was not just waiting on the sidelines.
Reports have it that the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX had tasked his researchers as well. They were to build an improvised submarine, small enough to navigate the flooding cave and big enough to attempt a rescue of the children as well. But they did not succeed before the trapped victims were successfully rescued.
The world could finally breathe in relief. After 17 days, the boys and their coach were extracted. One of the volunteer rescuers died.
But this is where the story takes a twist. When Vernon Unsworth spoke with reporters, he responded to a question about Elon Musk’s effort with a snide remark. He said the scientist’s submarine would never have worked and that the inventor could stick it “where it hurts”.
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In the heat of the moment, the billionaire scientist replied and called the man of the moment a “pedo guy”. After many people came after him for the statement, he deleted the tweet. But a month or so later, he came back and insulted Unsworth.
On one occasion, he called him a “child r*pist” in correspondence with a reporter from BuzzFeed.
For over the past year, the British diver had sued Musk. They wrestled continuously with the scientist still finding time to launch some new innovations. But it comes to head now, on Tuesday, today, at a court in Los Angeles, California. The members of the jury are being assembled for the case.
In November, a US district judge had ruled that Vernon was not a public figure and thus could not file for defamation. We await the outcome of today’s trial.
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