Pictures courtesy of Phuketinsta 

 

The Takua Pa Provincial Court in Phang Nga province has sentenced 45-year-old Russian citizen Artem Bugorsky to 12.5 years in prison for the intentional murder of his 13-year-old son, Lucas. The verdict follows a fatal incident on a tourist speedboat in late January 2025, which resulted in the boy’s death from severe propeller injuries. The case has drawn attention in Thailand due to its violent nature and the involvement of mental health findings.

 

The incident occurred as Bugorsky and his son were returning from the Surin Islands with other tourists on board a speedboat. About 200 metres from shore, Bugorsky grabbed Lucas by the legs and threw him overboard directly into the boat’s operating propeller. Bugorsky then jumped into the water himself, sustaining no serious injuries.

 

Lucas suffered catastrophic wounds from the propeller, and attempts to resuscitate him on board the vessel were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. At the time of the incident, there were multiple witnesses, including tourists and crew members, who later provided statements to investigators.

 

Prior to the killing, relatives and witnesses described the relationship between father and son as warm and attentive. Bugorsky was reportedly deeply involved in Lucas’s education, taught him the Russian language, and encouraged him to memorise poems by Alexander Pushkin. Lucas was born in Thailand and did not hold Russian citizenship.

 

In the year leading up to the incident, Bugorsky experienced a series of personal difficulties. These included a divorce from his Thai wife, who is Lucas’s mother, the loss of his visa and employment, financial problems and the death of his older brother. People close to him reported observing signs of mental health issues during this period.

 

A forensic psychiatric examination conducted at Surat Thani Hospital found that Bugorsky was suffering from a mental disorder caused by marijuana overdose. At the time of his arrest, police discovered a significant quantity of cannabis in his backpack. Despite the mental health findings, the court ruled that he was criminally responsible for his actions.

 

Thailand does not have specialised detention facilities for convicted prisoners with mental disorders. As a result, Bugorsky will serve his 12.5-year sentence in a standard Thai prison. No appeal outcome has been reported and authorities have not indicated any changes to his detention conditions.

 

 

Key Takeaways

 

• A Thai court sentenced Russian national Artem Bugorsky to 12.5 years for murdering his 13-year-old son in January 2025.

• The killing occurred on a speedboat near the Surin Islands, with the boy fatally injured by the vessel’s propeller.

• Despite findings of a marijuana-induced mental disorder, Bugorsky is serving his sentence in a regular prison.

 

Original Story

 

Russian-father-throws-son-from-speedboat-near-Surin-islands-leading-to-fatality

 

 

 Adapted by Asean Now from Phuketinsta 2025-12-26

 

 

 

Don't shoot me I'm just the messenger. 

 

"A forensic psychiatric examination conducted at Surat Thani Hospital found that Bugorsky was suffering from a mental disorder caused by marijuana overdose. At the time of his arrest, police discovered a significant quantity of cannabis in his backpack."

Good riddance

OMG, what a tragedy.

Reefer madness 

Too light a sentence.

Maybe his way of hurting his ex-wife.

A dreadful, cruel crime against his own son deserving a life sentence.

Don't think he deliberately wanted to kill him .

He had taken the boy on holiday and the boy said he wanted to go and live with his mum and the father instantly reacted by throwing him off the boat.

   lesson for everyone there .

Not to act spontaneously 

24 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Don't think he deliberately wanted to kill him .

He had taken the boy on holiday and the boy said he wanted to go and live with his mum and the father instantly reacted by throwing him off the boat.

   lesson for everyone there .

Not to act spontaneously 

Well, he’ll have about 12 years or so to mull this over, hopefully remain sober and seek religious solitude in Buddhism while in prison  -  but me thinks he will get in with the Russian Mafia and continue his way.  RIP to the Boy whose life was snuffed out by either a jealous father or drugged father, maybe both.

8 hours ago, Oliver Holzerfilled said:

Don't shoot me I'm just the messenger. 

 

"A forensic psychiatric examination conducted at Surat Thani Hospital found that Bugorsky was suffering from a mental disorder caused by marijuana overdose. At the time of his arrest, police discovered a significant quantity of cannabis in his backpack."

While I’m not defending this POS, THC is known to be able to can cause psychosis in someone who has a history of mental illness running in their family. That’s why the UK reclassified it from a class C to a class B drug in 2009. Although, the percentage of people that this is happening to annually in comparison to the number of people who smoke weed is minuscule.

 

Whether this was the case with the guy in question I can’t say, though. 
 

A friend of mine began to hear voices after he started smoking weed. They went away a couple of days after he stopped smoking it. 

5 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Don't think he deliberately wanted to kill him .

He had taken the boy on holiday and the boy said he wanted to go and live with his mum and the father instantly reacted by throwing him off the boat.

   lesson for everyone there .

Not to act spontaneously 

 

5 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Don't think he deliberately wanted to kill him .

He had taken the boy on holiday and the boy said he wanted to go and live with his mum and the father instantly reacted by throwing him off the boat.

   lesson for everyone there .

Not to act spontaneously 

A deeply worrying comment. Having had a lot of time to think about it Bugorsky threw his 13 year old son into the sea to be mangled by the boat's propellor, and you say you don't think he intended to kill him. What, then, do you think he intended ? 12.5 years is no way long enough for such cruel, murderous brutality against his own son.

1 minute ago, Thingamabob said:

 

A deeply worrying comment. Having had a lot of time to think about it Bugorsky threw his 13 year old son into the sea to be mangled by the boat's propellor, and you say you don't think he intended to kill him. What, then, do you think he intended ? 12.5 years is no way long enough for such cruel, murderous brutality against his own son.

 

    I believe they were talking about it on the boat .

Dad asks son how the holiday is , Son says "He doesn't like it and wants to  go back to live with Mum .

   Dad lose his temper and says "Go back to Mum" and pushed him into the sea  .

   If Dad wanted to kill him , all he would have had to do is hire  speed boat for the day and take the son to the ocean and drop him in and no one would know 

1 hour ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

    I believe they were talking about it on the boat .

Dad asks son how the holiday is , Son says "He doesn't like it and wants to  go back to live with Mum .

   Dad lose his temper and says "Go back to Mum" and pushed him into the sea  .

   If Dad wanted to kill him , all he would have had to do is hire  speed boat for the day and take the son to the ocean and drop him in and no one would know 

Kids say all manner of hurtful things in their early teens. If Burgovsky didn't want to kill his son and only wanted to throw him into the sea, then what ? A deeply distressing case to put it mildly.

On 12/26/2025 at 10:56 AM, Thingamabob said:

 

A deeply worrying comment. Having had a lot of time to think about it Bugorsky threw his 13 year old son into the sea to be mangled by the boat's propellor, and you say you don't think he intended to kill him. What, then, do you think he intended ? 12.5 years is no way long enough for such cruel, murderous brutality against his own son.

You're mistaking intent with premeditation, at least when it comes to how the law sees it.

 

If it was planned then he'll stand trial for murder 1, if it wasn't planned, he'll go down for manslaughter, which will result automatically in a lower prison sentence. 

 

I'd love to know what that speedboat looks like because normally the propellers are right beneath the motor and to throw someone onto them from a moving boat seems pretty much impossible  to me. So there's no guarantee that this will result in the guy falling onto them and losing his life. 

 

If it was one of the skinny Thai speedboats, though, the ones have that really long tail rudder then it definitely be possible. 

 

Either way, what a POS that guy is!

12 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

You're mistaking intent with premeditation, at least when it comes to how the law sees it.

 

If it was planned then he'll stand trial for murder 1, if it wasn't planned, he'll go down for manslaughter, which will result automatically in a lower prison sentence. 

 

I'd love to know what that speedboat looks like because normally the propellers are right beneath the motor and to throw someone onto them from a moving boat seems pretty much impossible  to me. So there's no guarantee that this will result in the guy falling onto them and losing his life. 

 

If it was one of the skinny Thai speedboats, though, the ones have that really long tail rudder then it definitely be possible. 

 

Either way, what a POS that guy is!

Whatever the fine points of the law this was a despicable act.

On 12/26/2025 at 3:22 AM, pacovl46 said:

A friend of mine began to hear voices after he started smoking weed. They went away a couple of days after he stopped smoking it

 

That's cos pot opens you a channel to the devil realms.

 

Play with fire you gonna get scorched by demons.

 

People should really just stick to alcohol, a much safer substance.

12 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Whatever the fine points of the law this was a despicable act.

Totally agree! One can only hope that he's not a socio- or a psychopath because then he'll have to live with it for the rest of his life! 

12 hours ago, Woke to Sounds said:

 

That's cos pot opens you a channel to the devil realms.

 

Play with fire you gonna get scorched by demons.

 

People should really just stick to alcohol, a much safer substance.

You couldn't be more wrong about that! I've been smoking weed for almost 3 decades now and I don't hear any voices nor did the devil get in touch with me. 

 

As far as alcohol being better than weed goes, there's a reason why alcohol is in spot number one when it comes to damage not only to the addict, but also heir social environment. Number 2 is heroin, weed is place 9 or 10. You could literally smoke weed all your life and it wouldn't do any damage apart from your screwing up your lungs, while after 20 years of downing a bottle of vodka a night will result in you being a physical and psychological wreck after about a decade. 

12 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

Totally agree! One can only hope that he's not a socio- or a psychopath because then he'll have to live with it for the rest of his life! 

He'll have to live with it for the rest of his life anyway. Given the brutality of the act maybe he couldn't care less.

4 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

He'll have to live with it for the rest of his life anyway. Given the brutality of the act maybe he couldn't care less.

If he’s a psycho- or a sociopath then it won’t get to him, because in that case he’ll be incapable of feeling remorse, empathy, regret or any emotions along those lines. 

13 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

If he’s a psycho- or a sociopath then it won’t get to him, because in that case he’ll be incapable of feeling remorse, empathy, regret or any emotions along those lines. 

Understood. That suggests confinement to a mental home rather than a jail.

On 12/28/2025 at 8:50 AM, pacovl46 said:

[ . . . ] while after 20 years of downing a bottle of vodka a night will result in you being a physical and psychological wreck after about a decade. 

 

Mmm... not sure about that one though.

 

Buff McKagan, the bass guy from Guns 'N Roses was a hardcore vodka fiend for years.

 

Went on to study accounting at a Seattle college and now invests rock stars' money for big bucks.

 

💥 

11 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

Understood. That suggests confinement to a mental home rather than a jail.

No, because it’s nothing you can treat or heal, it also doesn’t impair their way of thinking. It’s not like it’s a psychosis or they’re schizophrenic and hear the voice of the devil who tells them to go kill people. 
 

They know what they’re doing is wrong, they just don’t care because they don’t have any emotions, apart from all the negative ones, and therefore they’re fully accountable for their actions. 
 

What most people also don’t know is that not all psychopaths are criminals. Most of them live more or less normal lives and the number of psychopaths that become criminal or murderous is fairly small in comparison to the number of psychopaths that exist. 
 

 

7 hours ago, Woke to Sounds said:

 

Mmm... not sure about that one though.

 

Buff McKagan, the bass guy from Guns 'N Roses was a hardcore vodka fiend for years.

 

Went on to study accounting at a Seattle college and now invests rock stars' money for big bucks.

 

💥

Duff almost died from drinking! His pancreas was literally about to explode. When he finally got to a phone after laying on his kitchen floor for a day due to the massive pain and managed to call an ambulance, the doctor told him he’s got maybe another 5 days until he dies, if he doesn’t stop drinking right now. So he got his act together and cleaned up. I’ve read his autobiography and he mentioned it in that. 
 

I know quite a few alcoholics and all of them are f.cked and useless now because they still drink. Obviously, if you stop, then you’re not drunk anymore, which improves your mental capacity and your body will improve also health wise, but the damage to your liver and your brain will have been done.

 

Slash got a pacemaker at the age of 35 because he used to drink half a gallon of vodka a day and that was before he went out to party. All the heavy drinkers eventually pay the price. It’s just a matter of time!