All murders are, by their very nature, shocking.

However few have ever drawn the public’s attention, outrage and fear like the brutal and senseless killing of teenager Aamir Siddiqi at his family home in a leafy area of Cardiff.

The 17-year-old's murder rocked a nation and triggered a manhunt which, eight years on, still continues.

Ninian Road is a beautiful and well-presented street in the Roath area.

On one side of the street there is the popular Roath Recreation Ground and Pleasure Gardens with football pitches, tennis courts and a bowling green.

At lunchtime on Sunday, April 11, 2010, people were out enjoying their weekends in the spring sunshine.

On the opposite side of the road there is a long row of three-storey townhouses.

Set back from the main road, some have been converted into flats but many still remain large family homes with colourful gardens.

Inside 110 Ninian Road were married couple Iqbal and Parveen Ahmad, then aged 68 and 55 respectively.

Upstairs their son Aamir Siddiqi was working on his A-levels. This was not unusual.

Passionate sportsman Aamir had been accepted into Cardiff Law School and was a well-liked and diligent student.

Aamir's devastated parents later sold their family home and moved away from Cardiff owing to the painful memories the city held
Aamir's devastated parents later sold their family home and moved away from Cardiff owing to the painful memories the city held

The talented teenager was awaiting the arrival of a local imam who was going to deliver a Koran lesson.

There was a knock at the door and Aamir’s mother saw the outline of a man through the glass. He was putting on what seemed to be a piece of square cloth over his shoulder.

Assuming his teacher had arrived Mrs Ahmad called to Aamir asking him to open the door for the imam. But it was not piece of cloth – it was a balaclava.

As soon as Aamir opened the door two men attacked him with daggers. They were described by Aamir’s dad as “howling” like animals as they stabbed Aamir multiple times in the torso.

Mr Ahmad, who had undergone a knee replacement operation not long before the attack, bravely used all his energy to take hold of one of the pair’s hands and pin him against a wall with his head against his chest.

However, during a later trial, he described how the man was too strong for him and had slashed him twice before running off.

Meanwhile Aamir’s mum had jumped on the back of the other attacker, who by this time had chased Aamir into the dining room.

The two men fled the scene and made off in what turned out to be a stolen Volvo.

The silver Volvo XC90 used by the killers
The silver Volvo XC90 used by the killers

Mrs Ahmad ran out into the street screaming for someone to help.

Two young girls heard Mrs Ahmad’s calls and they ran up to passerby Ian Nurse and begged him to see what was wrong.

When Mr Nurse arrived on the doorstep of the family house Aamir’s mother emerged, crying out the only words she could muster: “help” and “stab”.

Inside Mr Nurse saw Aamir’s legs protruding into the hallway from a side room and he knelt beside the teenager’s body to check his pulse.

“There was nothing at all,” he would later tell Swansea Crown Court.

Ian Nurse pictured during the trial of Aamir's killers
Ian Nurse pictured during the trial of Aamir's killers

Minutes later DS Stuart Wales, a senior detective who had heard the call for help on his police radio, arrived at the house. He could see Mrs Ahmad at the window.

“The net curtain of the window flung back and I didn’t expect it to,” he would later describe in court.

“I looked to the right and I saw the face of Aamir’s mum – she looked absolutely traumatised. It’s still an image quite clear in my mind.”

During a 20-minute wait for an ambulance to take Aamir to the nearby University Hospital of Wales Sergeant Kee Wong performed CPR on him.

Despite these efforts he died of his wounds.

Police at Aamir's home on the day of the murder
Police at Aamir's home on the day of the murder

The scene was one of utter chaos.

DS Wales reported to the court: “I’ve 17 years of police service and, there’s no doubt about it, it was the most distressing incident I’ve ever had to attend.”

Both parents had been stabbed in the chest, head and arms as they fought to protect their son.

The murder shocked not just the city but the whole UK.

The police cordon in place around the home in Ninian Road following the murder
The police cordon in place around the home in Ninian Road following the murder

Aamir Siddiqi: The talented teenager with so much yet to achieve

Aamir attending a family wedding

He was a gifted, sports-mad, and popular teenager on the cusp of what he hoped would be an exciting new chapter of his life at university. On a Friday afternoon in April 2010 17-year-old Aamir Siddiqi was playing football in the park across the road from his home in leafy Ninian Road, Cardiff.

That September he was due to start his law degree at Cardiff University and on that afternoon he took pictures of his friends, talking to them about how he would miss them when they went their separate ways. Two days later Aamir answered the door to what he thought was his Koran teacher and was instead attacked by Ben Hope and Jason Richards, clad in balaclavas, who “howled” as they stabbed the promising teenager to death.

In a police interview played in court Parveen Ahmad told how her son showed signs of being gifted from an early age. “When he was about four or five we realised he had a special quality because of his memory,” she said.

Aamir went on to study at Cardiff High School and later at the Cardiff Academy, an independent examination-years college for 14 to 18-year-olds, with annual fees of £2,500 a term. “He was amazing,” said Mrs Ahmad. “Many teachers told me: ‘It is a pleasure to teach him’.”

Aamir, she said, was “intelligent, obedient, kind, fun-loving, humorous and caring”. She continued: “I don’t know anybody else who was like him. He wanted to study law at Cardiff University and could have been a brilliant lawyer or a brilliant journalist or could have taken the civil service exams like his father. He would tease me about not knowing stars and models. He knew about music, politics, religion, history, sport – and not just one sport but all of them.”

At school, his teachers said, Aamir was a popular, bright pupil who worked hard and particularly loved sports. As well as playing in the under-15 squad at Cardiff Gymkhana Cricket Club the teenager loved American football and soccer. His friends told how Aamir was competitive even in friendlies and “brought out the best in everyone”. He also loved to commentate and honed his skills at football matches played by his friends.

But it was at home that Aamir was most happy. In an emotional press conference after his death, his sister Nishat, then 34, said that even in their own family Aamir was as much a friend as a brother and son. “Aamir always wanted to be with his family,” she said. “He always saw the good in everyone.”

The hunt for the killers

The city was gripped by the search for those responsible.

What terrified the public was not just brutality of the murder but also the lack of any clear motive.

Cardiff University issued safety advice to its students and there was a heavy police presence in the Cathays and Roath areas.

In a press conferences detectives moved to reassure the public that “Cardiff does remain a safe city” and that this was an “isolated incident”.

When quizzed about possible motives the officers said: “We have no motives at this stage.

“Aamir was an upstanding member of the community, he was loved by his family and was well-respected.

“It is clearly a hypothesis that he was mistakenly targeted. You have to keep an open mind.”

Mourners carrying Aamir's coffin from his funeral at the Jamia Masjid Bilal Mosque in Cardiff on May 7, 2010
Mourners carrying Aamir's coffin from his funeral at the Jamia Masjid Bilal Mosque in Cardiff on May 7, 2010

In the days and weeks that followed Aamir’s parents, three sisters, extended family and friends made repeated appeals to the public for help to find their “precious” boy’s killers.

With her parents at first too distraught to speak publicly, Aamir’s sister Nishat stepped in to tell a press conference at Cardiff Central police station that her little brother was “a friend” and “something precious that we will miss”.

Aamir's sister Nishat Siddiqi pictured at a press conference on April 11, 2010
Aamir's sister Nishat Siddiqi pictured at a press conference on April 11, 2010
Nishat pictured alongside father Iqbal Ahmad in a subsequent press conference later in the investigation
Nishat pictured alongside father Iqbal Ahmad in a subsequent press conference later in the investigation

Police issued descriptions of two men they wanted to speak to, a £10,000 reward was offered, and calls flooded into the BBC’s Crimewatch programme.

Rumours swirled as to who was behind the attack. These intensified when the T&A stores shop in Salisbury Road in Cathays was cordoned off for several days as forensic experts searched for clues.

They were following a tip from the owner of the store – father-of-two Zaid Akbar. He had trawled through hours of CCTV footage after his mother Sarwar Noor, then 70, recognised descriptions of the men reported in the South Wales Echo.

Speaking at the time he said: “I was reading an article in the South Wales Echo and a description of these people was detailed in that.

“I read it out and my mum said it sounded like similar people who came into the shop.”

Sarwar told Zaid how the two men had asked for tape and gloves before leaving with only a packet of cigarettes.

Zaid gave this intelligence to the authorities and, days later, Ben Hope, 39, and Jason Richards, 38 were arrested by South Wales Police.

Jason Richards (left) and Ben Hope
Jason Richards (left) and Ben Hope

The pair seemed to have no relation to Aamir and his family. While Mr and Mrs Ahmad and their children were respected and well liked Richards operated in the city’s underworld.

He met co-defendant Ben Hope in prison and they went on to become a drug-dependent friendship outside.

Such was Richards’ level of addiction that he depended on Hope to inject heroin into otherwise unreachable parts of his anatomy after the veins in his arm collapsed.

Hope himself was no stranger to the police.

He was jailed for six years in 1997 for kidnapping and robbing a couple walking along a Cardiff street.

After shouting racist abuse from his car he attacked them, forced both into the vehicle and drove off at speed, later crashing. Hope and an accomplice then made off on foot.

While in jail he broke the nose of a prison guard and once released he sprayed a noxious liquid in a security guard's face after he was caught shoplifting. He was later convicted of possessing an offensive weapon and sentenced to a community order and drug rehabilitation programme.

Aamir Siddiqi
Aamir Siddiqi

Seventeen days after Aamir’s murder the team of detectives working on the case made a breakthrough – a Drunk Punk top was found by on the Taff embankment.

This containing DNA that would prove vital in the case against Hope and Richards.

In February 2013, following a four-and-a-half-month trial at Swansea Crown Court, the pair were found guilty of Aamir’s murder and the attempted murder of his parents.

Jason Richards (left) and Ben Hope
Jason Richards (left) and Ben Hope

They were sentenced to 40 years in prison each.

They would later appeal the sentences but this would be rejected.

After sentencing Umbareen Siddiqi, Aamir’s sister, said: “On behalf of the family, we’re delighted. We feel this sentence is appropriate.

“Our brother won’t return to us but this will go some way to achieving peace for all of us.”

Aamir Siddiqi pictured on his ninth birthday
Aamir Siddiqi pictured on his ninth birthday

The hunt continues

Despite the successful convictions the case was not yet over.

During the case it was said the killing had been a tragic case of mistaken identity and it was alleged that Hope and Richards had been paid £1,000 to carry out a “hit” on a father-of-four who lived in a neighbouring street.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Royce, called Hope and Richards “staggeringly incompetent” after it emerged they had to a similar-looking red-brick, end-of-row house around the corner from the home of their intended target.

CCTV footage in Cathedral Road, Cardiff, captured Hope and Richards together the morning after news of the murder had broken
CCTV footage in Cathedral Road, Cardiff, captured Hope and Richards together the morning after news of the murder had broken

After he was given his cash Hope went on a spending spree, starting by buying new training shoes at a Cardiff store with money from an cash-crammed envelope, as the salesman later remembered.

He then took a taxi to an out-of-town computer store, ensuring he was remembered by asking the driver to wait for his return.

Once inside the store he paid around £700 for a laptop and told a bemused salesman taking down his details that his name was Mr Smith.

Within days he had pawned the new laptop for a fraction of its true value to pay for drugs to feed his addiction.

Before the trial even began police had been looking for Mohammed Ali Ege, a businessman from Cardiff.

He had allegedly paid Hope and Richards to kill a rival over a collapsed property deal.

Mohammed Ali Ege

Crimewatch and Interpol appeals were issued but Ege left the country.

He is believed to have fled the UK to France on a cross-Channel ferry – wearing a wig to cover his distinctive shaven head.

It is believed from France went to Spain, Morocco, Senegal, Nepal and Bahrain before arriving in India.

While on the run Ege was allegedly using a number of false identities and had even made several trips overseas using his aliases.

Eight images of Ege – including three of him wearing a wig and several with him having adopted facial hair – were circulated to detectives in India who were trying to track him down.

The aliases used by Ege

He reportedly held an Indian passport, issued on February 18, 2011, and showing his date of birth as November 22, 1978, in the name of Abdul Malik.

In May 2011 Ege allegedly obtained an ‘age certificate’ from a hospital in the name of Abdul Jabbar in which his date of birth was given as 1975.

He was also said to have had two driving licences in the name of Abdul Mallik, again using the 1978 birthdate.

Ege was also said to have three voter ID cards in different names – Abdul Mallik, Abdul Jabbar, and Mohammed Abdul Kareem.

He also reportedly had an income tax account card in the name of Abdul Mallik, which was issued on January 4, 2011.

Ege’s British passport gives his date of birth as October 21, 1977.

During the time he was living in India police think he made trips to Laos, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Gambia.

But he was arrested in October 2011 was believed to have been held in Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad awaiting extradition.

The extradition process can be very lengthy and, also facing four charges in India, he was taken from prison to Patiala House courts in Delhi on April 12, 2017.

Mohammed Ali Ege
Mohammed Ali Ege

It was from here he escaped by removing the window grills of the washroom he was in.

Commander Mahendra Kumar Rathod told reporters in India at the time: “After the court proceedings the accused was being brought back to Hyderabad by a train.

“The escort team reached the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station to board a train to Hyderabad and were waiting at the Government Railway Police room.

“The accused requested the police to allow him to go to the washroom and he escaped from there by removing the window grills of the washroom.”

Video appeal after Ege escaped in India

Video Loading

Where is he now?

It has now been 15 months since Ege absconded from police custody in India.

It is more than eight years since he allegedly gave the order that robbed a teenager of his future and a family of their son.

South Wales Police refused to provide an update on the hunt for him.

Ege lived in the Riverside area of Cardiff and is believed to retain strong links to the city.

It is thought he has financial support and last year South Wales Police said they “believe that somebody in this country knows something about Mohammed Ege’s whereabouts and urge such people to contact us”.

Anyone with information can call police on 101 quoting reference 1700150924 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.