Musk: I wish I took Mum’s advice not to insult others

ELON Musk told a court yesterday he should have followed his mother’s advice to ignore insults before he called a heroic British caver ‘pedo guy’.

The billionaire Tesla boss, 48, is being sued for nearly £60,000 plus punitive damages by Vernon Unsworth, 64.

Mr Unsworth played a key role in rescuing 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in July last year.

He got into a heated war of words with Mr Musk after the South African-born tycoon offered a minisubmarine from his SpaceX rocket company to help with the rescue.

Mr Unsworth, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, described the ploy as a publicity stunt that would not work and suggested Mr Musk should ‘stick his submarine where it hurts’.

The tycoon hit back by calling Mr Unsworth ‘pedo guy’ in a tweet which he later deleted and apologised for. He claims he never intended to allege paedophilia – when he was growing up in South Africa it was a common insult meaning only ‘creepy old man’. Giving evidence at a trial in Los Angeles yesterday Mr Musk said: ‘He denigrated the efforts of my team and a lot of people who were working day and night to be helpful. They had cancelled their obligations and left their families behind.

‘ He was extremely rude and contemptuous. It was very much an off-the-cuff comment. He was rude and insulting so I insulted him back. It’s regrettable. It just goes to show that it’s like my mum used to say – if someone insults you, just let it go.’

Earlier, Mr Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro told the federal court jury: ‘The tweets are not allegations of crimes. They are joking, taunting tweets in a fight between two men.’

But Mr Unsworth’s lawyers have challenged this explanation, and say that Mr Musk also suggested in emails to a news website that their client was a ‘child rapist’.

Mr Unsworth, who is expected to give evidence later in the trial, has been exploring and mapping caves in Thailand for the past eight years. In June he was awarded an MBE.