San Francisco, Oct 29 (IANS): SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musks request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by British caver Vernon Unsworth over a "pedo guy" tweet, was denied by a Los Angeles judge.

US District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles has ruled that a jury will have to decide whether those tweets count as recklessly negligent, Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

Last year, twelve boys and their football coach were rescued from the Tham Luang cave complex after a week-long intense drama.

Musk offered to assist the rescue mission by providing a submarine but the request was turned down on the ground that it would be unworkable. He later lashed out saying that he would make a video proving that his "mini-sub" would have been successful.

Unsworth took on Musk in a widely-shared interview, saying the "mini-sub" "just had absolutely no chance of working".

In response, Musk tweeted several things, now-deleted, "Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it."

Then, a month later, he called Unsworth a "child rapist" in an email.

Unsworth sued two months later in a Los Angeles federal court, saying Mr Musk falsely branded him a paedophile and child rapist.