Toby Siddique murder: Widow admits pity for jailed brother-in-law

A WIDOW admitted feeling sorry for her brother-in-law after he was jailed yesterday for a minimum of 25 years for hiring a gunman to murder her husband in a fall-out over their business empire.

Saimah Siddique said Toby Siddique, 38, had loved and trusted his brother, Mo Siddique, 42, and she could not forgive him for instigating the “brutal” shooting.

“In a way, I feel sorry for him. My husband trusted him the most, probably more than he trusted me, and for him to do such an attack on his own brother, who loved him so much...I don’t have words to describe how I feel towards him but, yes, I feel sorry for him,” added Mrs Siddique, 33, a mother of three.

Mo and Toby Siddique had clashed over control of their lucrative flat rental business in Fife, and Tencho Andonov, 28, from Bulgaria, was to be paid £18,000 to eliminate the younger brother. He shot him repeatedly in the head in a flat in Glenrothes on 24 October, 2010. He was told he would serve at least 29 years.

Siddique, of Auchtertool, Fife, and Andonov, of Livingston, West Lothian, showed no emotion as they were led from the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh with another man, Deyan Nikolov, 27, also a Bulgarian, fof Kirkcaldy, Fife, who had acted as go-between in the deal and who received a minumum term of 18 years.

All three had been found guilty last month of murdering Toby Siddique after one of the longest trials in recent times. It ran for more than four months. The trio had known they would receive manadatory life sentences, and Lord Kinclaven had to set their “punishment parts”, the time they must spend in custody before becoming eligible for parole.

Toby Siddique’s widow, Saimah, 33, said the sentencing had removed a “massive burden off my shoulders” and justice had been done.

“It has been 18 months, and none of it has been easy. Whether it was Toby’s brother or my own brother, I would have fought for justice from day one. I knew my husband for 14 years and having to sit through the trial and listen to the defence blacken his name was not easy. My husband had a heart of gold and they portrayed him to be someone he wasn’t. He lived for his children and it is upsetting to know my children are going to grow up without a father.”