British Thai cave rescue hero sends legal letter to Elon Musk threatening to sue over paedo accusation

The British caving expert who coordinated the rescue of 12 Thai children trapped underground has informed Elon Musk he is preparing to sue him, after the Tesla founder labelled him a “paedo” on Twitter.  Vernon Unsworth, 63, enraged the billionaire when he rejected his offer of sending a submarine to assist the rescue, pointing out that it was not a workable solution, and deriding it as a "PR stunt". He said Mr Musk could "stick his submarine where it hurts." Mr Musk hit back, calling Mr Unsworth a “paedo guy”, in a now-deleted tweet. He then issued an apology, and said he had tweeted “in anger”. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla But on Tuesday he reignited the controversy by mocking Mr Unsworth for not following up on his threat to take legal action. On Wednesday it emerged that Mr Unsworth’s lawyers had in fact sent Mr Musk a letter on August 6, informing him of their intention to sue for the “false and defamatory statements.” “You published through three different tweets to your twenty-two 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 twelve Thai children,” wrote L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta-based defamation expert, in a letter obtained by BuzzFeed.  “You did so without any basis. According to a subsequent Twitter post, you did so out of anger.” A Tesla representative did not respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment. Mr Unsworth told Sky News on Wednesday: “It's all being dealt with, that's all I can say."

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