Los Angeles (AFP)

The fantastic boss of Tesla, Elon Musk, recorded Friday a legal victory in Los Angeles, where he was acquitted of defamation for a tweet in which, in the summer of 2018, he called "dude pedo" a British speleologist.

It took less than an hour of deliberations for the jury to acquit the billionaire born in South Africa in the high-profile case against Vernon Unsworth, a Briton who accused him of having made a "coup de pub "by sending a submarine of its design to rescue children prisoners of a cave in Thailand.

The spelunker, who had participated in the rescue operation, had claimed earlier Friday before the jury $ 190 million compensation for defamation, saying his reputation had been dirty.

"My faith in humanity is restored," said Elon Musk after the announcement of the verdict. "The jury was not wrong," added his lawyer Alex Spiro.

One of the speleologist's lawyers, Mark Stephens, on the contrary, expressed his disappointment, pointing to the huge amount of money Mr. Musk had had to organize his defense. "I just hope nobody will have to go through this and face Mr. Musk in the future," said the plaintiff's lawyer.

Vernon Unsworth himself said he was sorry for the verdict, but said he would respect the jury's decision.

- "Billionaire Tyrant" -

The prosecution and defense lawyers played very different scores in their respective pleadings on Friday.

Another Vernon Unsworth lawyer, Lin Wood, estimated that the $ 190 million in compensation claimed was the equivalent of a "strong pat on the fingers" for the billionaire and that it would prevent him from "launching again a nuclear bomb in the life of another individual ".

In 90 minutes of speaking in the Los Angeles federal court, Mr. Wood painted a portrait of a "billion-dollar tyrant" against his client, a man of modest origins whose life was turned upside down by the projectors focused on this dispute high-profile.

Elon Musk's lawyer, Mr. Spiro, instead told the jury that Mr. Unsworth was trying to take advantage of the media coverage of the case, which he said was "a dispute between two people".

"It was just an insult," said Spiro.

- Avenging Tweet -

Vernon Unsworth, in an interview with CNN television, described as a "publicity stunt" the mission mounted by Elon Musk to free children in Thailand. He said in particular that the submersible was unsuitable and that the billionaire could "put it where it hurts".

The boss of Tesla and SpaceX had replicated on Twitter using the term "guy pedo" ("pedo guy") to refer to Mr. Unsworth.

Elon Musk had apologized a few days after the messages he had erased. He renewed his apology during the trial, which opened Tuesday in Los Angeles.

The sexagenarian had reaffirmed to him that the businessman had indeed wanted to make a "pub shot".

Mr. Musk's lawyers argued that the 48-year-old's avenging tweets were only an "insult" in a dispute between the two men, but that this was not strictly speaking defamation. Mr. Musk did not mean "literally" that Mr. Unsworth was a pedophile.

On Wednesday, the speleologist said he was "humiliated and dirty" for life by Elon Musk.

© 2019 AFP