RECORD producer and songwriter Winston Riley is dead. Riley died in hospital yesterday from the effects of a gunshot wound he received last year. He was in a coma since he was attacked and shot in the back of the head in November last year.

Winston, who was the father of Fame FM disc jockey Kurt Riley, had been plagued by a series of violent attacks. He was shot in August last year and later stabbed five times in September.

Riley…died in hospital yesterday

Kurt Riley told the Observer this morning that his father’s grieving relatives could not figure out a motive behind the attempts on his father’s life.

“Unfortunately Daddy didn’t wake up so we could talk to him to find out if there was something he was not telling us. He was a straightforward man, who was allergic to hypocrisy,” he said.

Winston Riley produced the late General Echo’s The Slackest album on his Techniques label in 1979, and was instrumental in the development of the careers of Sister Nancy, Buju Banton, Cutty Ranks, Lone Ranger, and Frankie Paul.