Chucky and horror film obsessive Fabio Botros was 19 and had his anti-psychotic medication reduced when he killed his dad, Smad Samir Botros Farag, at their home in Brighton
A Chucky obsessive who boasted a massive collection of horror dolls murdered his dad in a hammer and knife attack that left a woman and child injured.
Fabio Botros was charged with the murder of Smad Samir Botros Farag, 57, and the attempted murder of a woman and 11-year-old boy last year, when he was aged just 19. The then-teenager, who is now 20, had killed his dad at their Brighton home following an argument about baggage allowance before an Egypt holiday on April 1, 2025, with Brotros seen with one hand around the parent’s neck and another clutching a blood-drenched hammer.
Botros has now pleaded guilty to manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm to the two other victims, and been handed an indefinite hospital order after a court heard he suffered from severe mental health issues.
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The court heard that Botros had been treated as an inpatient in psychiatric hospitals at least twice in his life, and, in 2024, a social worker said he “looked vacant and asked her to help him end his life”. Before he killed his father, his mental health had “deteriorated to the worst [his family] had ever known” due to an autism and depression misdiagnosis.
Sussex Police said that, on the day he killed his father, officers attending the family property found two people outside the address, a boy with an injury to his head and woman with “significant knife injuries”.
They were treated at the scene by paramedics and rushed to hospital, while Mr Botros was pronounced dead at the scene after being found with a “significant head injury”. Botros was charged the following day with murder and attempted murder. Representing the Crown Ryan Ritcher said Botros was seen with his hand around his father’s neck and clutching a hammer on the day of his death.
He said the dad had “been beaten over the head”, adding Botros had then “opened a drawer and took out a large kitchen knife before stabbing the woman in the face”. He added: “The boy was also hit on the head with the hammer.”
The court heard that, despite having made “significant improvement” on anti-psychotic medication, this was “substantially reduced” when people treating him put his issues down to autism and depression. Dr Michael Kavuma confirmed a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia to the court.
Her Honour Judge Christine Laing KC said: “It is a cruel aspect of this case that the anti-psychotic medication was substantially reduced as those treating him thought his difficulties might be due to autism and depression.”
Ultimately, the judge concluded, the decision to reduce the medication “led to the killing of his father”, and, in the weeks before the killing, the teen had withdrawn from contact, “stopped going to college, was speaking to himself and acting on hallucinations”. The court was also told Botros’ father had requested an urgent assessment days before he was killed.
