Published 11:10 IST, December 7th 2019
Elon Musk cleared of defamation lawsuit over "Pedo Guy" tweet
Elon Musk was cleared of a defamation lawsuit by a jury in the city of Los Angeles in relation to a tweet in which he called a British diver a "pedo guy"
Tesla co-founder Elon Musk was cleared of a defamation lawsuit by a jury in the city of Los Angeles in relation to a tweet in which he called a British cave explorer "pedo guy". According to reports, the panel presiding over the case carefully considered details for less than an hour before giving their judgement in favour of Musk, clearing him of all charges in a case against British explorer Vernon Unsworth.
Musk's legal representative, Alex Spiro, told the Jury that the case was basically an argument between two people and that Unsworth was trying to bag profits from the defamation case. He further added that it was just an insult and that Unsworth highlighted that insult and put it in front of everyone. Spiro also said that it was the plaintiff who had picked up a fight with Musk and in response to that Tesla's co-founder had posted a tweet that he regretted.
"Billionaire bully"
Vernon Unsworth's lawyer Lin Wood told the jury in the closing statement of the case that the $190 million in damages that his client was seeking would have been a rude awakening for Musk and would have stopped the billionaire from causing chaos in the life of any other person. Wood called Musk a bully and said that his client was a common man whose life had been disrupted by the much-publicized incident.
The incident
Elon Musk's "pedo guy" comment against Unsworth came after an interview in which the Britisher refused to take up Musk's offer of a mini-submarine to rescue a young soccer team that was stuck in a cave in Thailand in the year 2018. In his response, Unsworth called Musk's offer a PR stunt and said that the Tesla CEO should stick the submarine where it hurts.
After the incident garnered a lot of attention, Musk said that his comment was a direct reaction to what Unsworth had said and added that the term "pedo guy" was used in his home town in South Africa.
Case against Elon Musk
Before Musk was cleared of all the charges, a United States federal judge stated that the Elon Musk will face a defamation case after he referred to a British diver as 'pedo guy'. A Los Angeles judge, Stephen Wilson denied Musk's request on November 20 to throw out the case and cleared the way for the trial to begin on December 3.
Musk had sought to dismiss the suit earlier by claiming that his comment was an insult, not an allegation. However, the claims made by the diver also include an email sent by Tesla CEO to an international news outlet urging them to 'stop defending child rapists'.
(With inputs from agencies)
Updated 11:29 IST, December 7th 2019