Musk renews attack on cave rescue hero

ELON Musk has escalated his feud with the British caver involved in July’s rescue of a group of young Thai footballers, whom he had previously accused of being a paedophile.

Vernon Unsworth (63) angered the technology billionaire when he derided his offer of sending a minisubmarine to help in the rescue, pointing out it was not a workable solution.

Mr Musk responded with a baseless attack in a now deleted tweet, calling Mr Unsworth a “paedo guy”. He issued an apology, and said he had tweeted “in anger”.

Last week he reignited the controversy by mocking Mr Unsworth for not following up on his threat to take legal action. It later emerged 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”.

Buzzfeed published emails Mr Musk sent last week, in which he launched another unfounded attack on Mr Unsworth and swore at a journalist who has covered the dispute.

“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you f***ing a ****** ,” Mr Musk wrote.

He has offered no evidence to support his claims.

Mr Unsworth’s lawyer, Lin Wood, denied the latest accusation, writing in a statement: “Elon Musk can tweet his vindictive and vicious lie about Mr Unsworth a hundred times and it will still be a lie.”