Family heard gunshot that killed businessman as they watched X Factor

STV
Mohammed Nadeem Siddique: The businessman was shot in Glenrothes last year.

A family watching The X Factor on TV were disturbed by loud bangs, a trial into the death of a Fife businessman has heard.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that because it was late October they thought it was the sound of fireworks.

It was the evening last year when Fife businessman Toby Siddique, 38, was shot dead, allegedly on the orders of his elder brother, Mo, 42.

Thomas Boyne, 33, and girlfriend Megan Dodds had gone to her father's home in Glenrothes, Fife, to cook a Sunday evening meal for him. Afterwards they sat down to watch television.

On Wednesday, the trial heard that just before the show finished they heard noises coming from the flat below and muted the TV set to listen.

Ms Dodds said it sounded like two people fighting. She said: "Like banging into tables and smashing things. Really rough fighting."

Mr Boyne told police afterwards it sounded like "a brawl".

They muted the television set to listen to what was happening but the noise had quietened.

Ms Dodds said: "Then I heard like a big bang. I didn't know what it was at the time."

Mr Boyne said: "We thought that it was fireworks or a car had back-fired. We kind of looked at each other and wondered what it was but there is a lot of bother in that block of flats Megan's father stays in so we didn't go out and investigate it. We left it at that."

A few minutes later they drove away from the father's flat in Forres Drive and went home, only learning about the shooting incident later.

Mo Siddique, along with Bulgarians Tencho Andonov, 28, and Deyan Nikolov, 27, deny murder and conspiracy to murder. They also deny attempting to murder security man David Dalgleish, 44, who lived in the flat in Forres Drive, Glenrothes, where Toby Siddique died.

The charges against them include an allegation that Toby Siddique was lured to his death by a promise that he could buy contraband cigarettes and drink

.Mo Siddique has lodged papers in court blaming Mr Dalgleish for his brother's death. Andonov, who is accused of pulling the trigger, and Nikolov say they have alibis.