Not even 7 days after we pondered what part of Elon Musk’s PR genius compelled him to triple down on his claim that a British cave rescuer was a “pedo” than Musk was back at it. He has now reportedly quadrupled down on these claims, essentially going “all in” on his previous statements and labeling rescue diver Vern Unsworth a “child rapist” in an e-mail he sent to BuzzFeed news.
But wait, there’s more. As an added touch, Musk also called BuzzFeed news reporter Ryan Mac a “fucking asshole.”
We’re guessing that Tesla must be on its way to profitability and that Model 3 production must be through the roof, since Musk has apparently chosen to allocate his spare time in continuing to address whether or not a cave diver who helped save a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand is, in fact, a pedophile.
Having previously labeled cave diver Vern Unsworth as “pedo guy” in a Tweet, Musk made these new claims in an email to BuzzFeed news, calling Unsworth a “child rapist” who had moved to Thailand in order to take a child bride “who was about 12 years old at the time“. Musk wrote:
“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you fucking asshole,” Musk wrote in the first message. “He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.”
Musk then followed up by stating “I fucking hope he sues me”.
Unsworth reportedly denied these accusations through his attorney to BuzzFeed.
The article notes that it is unclear why Musk believes this and whether or not he has proof of his claims. Even if he did, at this point, is this a narrative worth pursuing for the embattled CEO? Unsworth’s lawyer furthered his case that these statements were actionable in a statement to BuzzFeed.
“Elon Musk can tweet his vindictive and vicious lie about Mr. Unsworth a hundred times and it will still be a lie. After deleting the initial accusation and tweeting an apology, Mr Musk has continued to republish his false and unsupportable accusation. His conduct demonstrates that his recklessness is intentional and designed to harm Mr. Unsworth.”
He continued, “Today the rich and powerful seem all too ready to tweet falsities in the hope and expectation that their wealth and position will protect them. Pedophilia is too serious an issue to leave unchallenged. If Mr. Musk believes his wealth affords him protection from his lies and Twibels, he is sadly mistaken.”
A search for a criminal history on Unsworth reportedly yielded nothing.
Publicly available legal documents do nothing to support Musk’s claims: BuzzFeed News could not immediately locate any criminal records for Unsworth in the UK.
Separately, a Thai immigration official named Ploy Pailin told BuzzFeed News that an individual on a visa would likely not have it renewed if they had been found guilty of criminal activity in the country. Pailin also said that while foreigners applying for visas in Thailand do not undergo mandatory background checks, those who are found guilty of serious crimes are often blacklisted by the government and can be removed from the country.
Unsworth’s longtime girlfriend of seven years, 40 year old Woranan Ratrawiphukkuh, stated that he spends part of the year in Thailand and part of the year in the UK. She “declined to comment on Musk’s allegations against Unsworth, and referred a reporter to his lawyers,” according to the report.
When we last reported on Musk’s inability to stop talking about British cave diver Vern Unsworth, we noted that Unsworth was potentially preparing a libel suit against Musk for claims that he had made about the diver.
Below is the full text of the letter obtained by BuzzFeed that was sent to Musk on August 6. In it, it calls Musk’s statements “false and defamatory” and points out that Musk stated, in three Tweets to 22 million followers, that Unsworth “engages in the sexual exploitation of Thai children” at the very same time “he was working to save the lives of twelve Thai children”.
To date, it doesn’t appear that any lawsuit has been filed.
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