Elon Musk has owned up to insulting a British spelunker in a rash tweet but wouldn't concede on the witness stand that he called the man a paedophile.
The Tesla CEO returns to the witness stand on Wednesday after spending several hours at his defamation trial trying to dance around the meaning of the "pedo guy" tweet he aimed at Vernon Unsworth, a cave diver who helped rescue a dozen boys and their soccer coach from a flooded Thailand cave last year.
Mr Musk said the insult meant only "creepy old man" and did not literally mean he was calling Mr Unsworth a paedophile.
The spat began when Mr Unsworth ridiculed Mr Musk's effort in the rescue by having engineers at his companies, including Space X and The Boring Co., develop a mini-submarine that could transport the boys to safety.
Despite working around the clock to build the sub in short order, Mr Musk arrived in Thailand late in the rescue effort and the craft was never used.
Mr Unsworth called it nothing more than a "PR stunt" and said Mr Musk could stick the sub "where it hurts."
In an interview with CNN, British rescue worker Vernon Unsworth said Musk can "stick his submarine where it hurts". Source: CNN
Mr Musk watched the CNN clip of Mr Unsworth several times before lashing out in a series of tweets on 15 July in 2018.
"It was wrong and insulting, so I insulted him back," the billionaire told a Los Angeles federal court jury.
"It was an unprovoked attack on what was a good-natured attempt to help the kids."
Mr Unsworth is seeking unspecified damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress from the tech entrepreneur whose net worth exceeds $US20 billion.
Mr Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro, said during opening statements that Mr Unsworth deserves nothing for what he called "joking, taunting tweets in a fight between men."
The shame and mortification Mr Unsworth said he experienced is undercut by the attention he received after the rescue, Mr Spiro said, including honours from the Thai king and British prime minister and offers from agents and film crews.
Mr Musk's tweet about Mr Unsworth caused Tesla's stock to drop about three per cent the following day, though it recovered a day later.
Elon Musk unveils his underground transportation tunnel in LA, aimed at beating traffic congestsion. Source: AP
Mr Musk said he was asked to help with the cave rescue and decided to get involved when he heard a Thai Navy diver died in the cave system and that a monsoon was forecast that could drown the soccer team.
Mr Musk received no compensation for his efforts, though he acknowledged his work could have been interpreted as a "narcissistic" publicity effort.
Musk deleted the 15 July, 2018, tweets and apologised on Twitter, though subsequent statements he made have called into question what he meant.
Mr Musk responded to a question on Twitter about whether he had accused Mr Unsworth of being a paedophile by saying, "Bet ya a signed dollar it's true."
He told a Buzzfeed reporter seeking comment on the threat of a lawsuit by Mr Unsworth to "stop defending child rapists," followed by expletives.
Mr Musk said he didn't know Mr Unsworth had helped with the rescue when he first tweeted about him and said "pedo guy" wasn't asserted as a fact.
"Just as I didn't literally mean he was a paedophile, I'm sure he didn't literally mean shoving a sub up my ass," Mr Musk testified, provoking snickers.
