RIP Jill Sinclair, wife of Trevor Horn...

Trevor Horn, the music producer, has paid tribute to his “inspirational” wife and business partner Jill Sinclair, who has died eight years after suffering brain damage in a shooting accident.

Sinclair, 61, passed away “peacefully” on Saturday at the family home in London. She had been suffering from cancer.

The mother-of-four, who had been married to Horn since 1980, had been unable to move or communicate since June 2006 when she was accidentally shot by her son Aaron, who was target-shooting with his air rifle at the family home.

A pellet hit her in the neck, severing an artery and causing extensive brain damage from oxygen starvation to the brain. She spent more than three years in a coma, and despite eventually coming out of the coma Horn said in a 2012 interview that “she cannot speak, move or smile. The only expression she can show is of discomfort”.

Horn said: “Jill was an inspiration in every aspect of her life, as my wife and as the mother of our children.