Thai cave rescue: diver Vernon Unsworth hasn’t ruled out legal action over Elon Musk’s ‘pedo’ slur

The British cave diver at the centre of a bizarre attack says he hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against Elon Musk.

Elon Musk, right, has used Twitter to call a British cave diving expert Vernon Unsworth, inset, a pedo because he lives in Thailand.

The British cave diver at the centre of a bizarre attack from Elon Musk says he hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.

Musk’s attack played out on Twitter, when he labelled Vernon Unsworth — who played a crucial role in the rescue of the Thai soccer team — a “pedo” because he lives in Thailand.

The Tesla co-founder made the claim as he defended his offer of a minisub to help the rescue effort, which Mr Unsworth had slammed as a “PR stunt.”

As the 12 boys and their soccer coach continue to recover in hospital, Mr Unsworth, 63, said he couldn’t “put into words” how he feels about Mr Musk, and told CNN: “He (Musk) can stick his submarine where it hurts. It had absolutely no chance of working.

“He had no conception of what the cave passage was like.

“The submarine, I believe, was about five foot six long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles,” he explained.

“It wouldn’t have made the first 50 metres into the cave from the dive start point. Just a PR stunt.”

Unsworth told AFP on Monday he had not reviewed the tweets in full and had only heard about them.

Asked if he would take legal action against Musk over the allegation, Unsworth said: “If it’s what I think it is yes.” The caver told AFP he would make a decision when he flies back to the UK this week, but said the episode with Musk “ain’t finished”.

“He’s just a PR stunt merchant — that’s all he is,” Unsworth added.

Mr Unsworth, who lives in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, the location of the rescue, added that Mr Musk had been “asked to leave” the cave “very quickly.”

Mr Musk, 47, who had tweeted about the device his team had built for days last week as rescuers worked against the clock to extract the boys, hit back in a series of tweets, claiming he never saw Mr Unsworth in the cave and declaring it “sus” that he lived in Thailand.

Cave rescuer on Musk: “It was a PR stunt. It had no chance of working.” pic.twitter.com/uPgRMQLkRx

— Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) July 13, 2018

“Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves” he wrote in a Twitter thread to a New York Times writer who had suggested he see the experience as a “lesson.”

“Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army guys, who were great. Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave.”

“I challenge this dude to show final rescue video,” he continued. “Huge credit to pump & generator team. Unsung heroes here.”

ah good it appears elon musk is now doubling down on his claim that one of the cave rescuers is a pedophile pic.twitter.com/3QSGhjQPON

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) July 15, 2018

In his final tweet, he addressed Mr Unsworth as “pedo guy.”

“You know what, don’t bother showing the video,” Mr Musk wrote. “We will make one of the minisub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”

Mr Unsworth, who is familiar with the Tham Luang cave network, played a critical part in the rescue, predicting where the boys would have taken shelter. He also connected Thai authorities with the British divers who became the first to find the boys.

During the cave operation which rescuers now admit they didn’t expect to succeed, Mr Musk tweeted from the cave that he would leave his submarine, named Wild Boar after the boys’ soccer team, in Thailand in case it was needed in the future.

Elon Musk tweeted a photograph of the submarine being tested in a swimming pool. Picture: Twitter.

At the time cave rescue command chief Narongsak Osaththakorn said politely that the device was “not suitable” for the mission, which Mr Musk responded to by tweeting an email from Richard Stanton, another operation leader, asking him to keep working on the design.

Details of the cave rescue are emerging, showing the extreme dangers both rescuers and boys were under. Just minutes after the last of the divers emerged from the cave, the pumps that had drained billions of tons of water from the caves failed, flooding the caves again and forcing the rescuers to flee for their lives.

The boys and their coach are continuing to recover well in hospital and are expected to be allowed home within days.