BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Elon Musk testified Tuesday that he was being insulting, not literal, when he called a British diver a pedophile in a tweet, prompting a defamation lawsuit from the man who helped rescue a dozen boys and their soccer coach from a flooded Thailand cave last year.
The Tesla CEO told jurors that he called Vernon Unsworth "pedo guy" because he was upset the diver had belittled his efforts to help by building a mini-submarine to transport the boys. Unsworth called it nothing more than a "PR stunt" and said Musk could stick the contraption "where it hurts." The sub was never used.
"It was wrong and insulting, so I insulted him back," the billionaire said in federal court in Los Angeles. "It was an unprovoked attack on what was a good-nature
