MAIDA Vale Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins this week learned of the death of his father in suspicious circumstances in Australia

MAIDA Vale Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins this week learned of the death of his father in suspicious circumstances in Australia.

Gary Wiggins, 55, was discovered unconscious in a street in the town of Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, early on Friday morning.

A post-mortem examination found he died from an injury to the head.

New South Wales Police said: "The circumstances leading up to Mr Wiggins' death are still to be confirmed and it is being treated as suspicious at this stage."

Mr Wiggins' niece, Kirsty Liszczak, urged anyone with information about what happened to contact police.

She told Australia's Newcastle Herald news-paper: "I am not saying Uncle Gary was an angel but if a person is bashed and left there, well the people who have done this are nothing but scum.

"He didn't deserve this."

Bradley Wiggins, who grew up in Maida Vale, was the first Briton for 40 years to win three medals - a gold, a silver and a bronze - at a single Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.