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.