Aamir Siddiqi murder: Mother describes son's death

Aamir Siddiqi's mother told a court she thought a practical joke was being played on her son when two masked men turned up at her door.

Giving evidence to Cardiff Crown Court via DVD, Parveen Ahmad said she lost the person she "loved the most" when her only son was stabbed to death in April 2010.

She was also injured in the attack.

Ben Hope, 38, and Jason Richards, 37, deny murder and attempted murder and blame each other. The trial continues.

In an interview recorded the day after her 17-year-old son's death, she said she thought the men at her door were holding toy weapons.

She said she thought they would say: "Ha ha, I scared you."

However, very quickly, she said, she realised it was no "play".

The court heard she was injured as she tried to stop one of the attackers stabbing her only son, shouting: "Leave him alone."

Touched his stomach

She said she was in such shock she dialled nine four times instead of three as she tried to call an ambulance.

The court heard she told the operator: "My son's lying in a pool of blood and there are three people who've been stabbed."

As a first aider, she said she touched his stomach to see if he was breathing, but said: "I realised my son had gone," and sunk to the floor.

Earlier, the jury was shown a recorded interview with the teenager's father, Sheikh Iqbal Ahmad.

He said he knows no reason why anyone would want to kill him.

He described the last moments of Aamir's life at their home in Roath, Cardiff.

He said on the morning of the attack his son was studying in his bedroom.

The front door bell had rung and he had gone to answer it, but Aamir had got there before him. They were expecting his Koran teacher to arrive, but what confronted him were two masked men.

Howling noises

His father told the court they started to attack Aamir immediately. His son tried to run away and managed to get back up through the hall to the dining room, but one of the men followed him there and stabbed him again.

The whole attack was described as terrifying.

He described how the men were making howling noises throughout, like something out of a martial arts film, adding that he managed to pin one of the men to the wall.

But it was not enough and the man broke free and slashed him with a knife.

He said it was the worst period of his life waiting for help after the attack.

His daughters were doctors so, with medical knowledge he had learned from them, he tried to check if his son was breathing, but he found that he was not.