San Francisco, Sep 17 (IANS): Tesla founder Elon Musk has said that he didn't mean to insult a Thai cave rescue diver by calling him a 'pedo guy' as in South Africa it simply means a 'creepy old man'.

Musk who hired a private detective for $50,000 to look into the British caver, claimed in the court filings that the insult wasn't intended to imply the caver was a pedophile, reports Futurism.

Musk has been sued for his 2018 defamatory tweet, in Los Angeles by 64-year-old Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue 12 boys trapped in an underwater cave in Thailand last year.

"It is synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanour, not accuse a person of acts of paedophilia," he said in his court filing.

The case is set to go to trial on December 2.

The dispute between the duo erupted after Unsworth said a miniature submarine Musk sent to Thailand to help with the rescue efforts was nothing more than a "PR stunt".

Musk had called him the 'pedo guy' after the Tesla founder failed. Musk said he did not intend to accuse Unsworth of engaging in acts of paedophilia.

Unsworth's lawyer Lin Wood, however, dismissed the motion filed by Musk as "a disgusting and transparent effort to continue smearing Vernon Unsworth without any credible or verified supporting evidence."