Elon Musk defamation trial begins in case brought by British diver

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/03/elon-musk-defamation-trial-begins-in-case-brought-by-british-diver

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LA court to hear Vernon Unsworth’s lawsuit over comments after Thai cave rescue

It was a gripping tale of peril and prowess that captivated the world for more than two tense weeks in the summer of 2018. Twelve boys and their football coach were lost in a subterranean maze in the Tham Luong caves in Thailand. An international team of cave divers raced to rescue them before monsoon rains were due to flood the caves. The story was destined to be fodder for a Hollywood blockbuster – and that was before an eccentric billionaire got involved.

On Tuesday, a postscript to the feelgood tale of the Tham Luang cave rescue will play out in a federal courthouse in Los Angeles, California, as the trial begins in a defamation case brought by the British diver Vernon Unsworth against Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk.

Unsworth, a British national who lives in Thailand, was among the first divers to reach the scene of the boys’ disappearance. He was credited by rescuers for his detailed knowledge of the cave system, which helped locate the missing team.

Musk had also attempted to assist with the rescue; the chief of Tesla and SpaceX assigned a team of engineers to design a miniature submarine that he hoped could be used to guide the boys through underwater tunnels. Although Musk delivered the submarine to the rescue site, the boys were rescued by divers, one of whom died during the operation.

Unsworth drew the ire of Musk following the rescue when he gave a brief interview to CNN and ridiculed his submarine, which he said “had absolutely no chance of working”. He added that Musk should “stick his submarine where it hurts”.

The billionaire entrepreneur lashed out at Unsworth on Twitter, where he called the caver a “pedo guy” to his 22 million followers. Under intense criticism from the public and his company’s investors, Musk apologised and deleted the tweets, but he subsequently revived the baseless allegations in another series of tweets about a month later. Musk also alleged in another baseless allegation that Unsworth was a “child rapist” in an email to a BuzzFeed reporter.

Tuesday’s trial follows a year of legal wrangling between Unsworth and Musk’s attorneys. Musk had attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing at one point that “pedo guy” is a common insult in his home country of South Africa and was not intended as an actual accusation of pedophilia. Court filings revealed that Musk had also hired a private investigator to attempt to substantiate his allegations against Unsworth.

The US district judge Stephen Wilson ruled in November that Unsworth was not a public figure, lowering the bar for the cave explorer to prove that Musk had defamed him.

The trial will start after jury selection on Tuesday. Potential jurors will be asked whether they hold strong opinions on billionaires who visit Thailand, Reuters reported. Once a panel of jurors is selected, Musk is expected to be the first witness.