A three-year-old Northern Ireland girl who remains paralysed after being knocked down in a hit-and-run accident while on holiday in Spain finally flew home tonight.
Phoebe Lyle from Bangor, Co Down, was taken to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children for further treatment.
The girl's parents, Robert and Jane, who maintained a bedside vigil at the hospital in Oviedo where she was being treated, have pleaded for privacy.
"The family has thanked everybody for their messages of support and good wishes but have asked to be left in peace by the media to allow Phoebe to settle in and receive her ongoing treatment," a hospital spokeswoman said.
Her condition was described as stable.
Phoebe slipped into a coma after being struck by a speeding car on a mountain road near Leon, north-west of Madrid more than three weeks ago.
Her family has been left praying she makes a full recovery from injuries which have left her paralysed from the neck down.
Phoebe's father is a director of the Belfast advertising agency McCann-Erickson, which has campaigned against drink-driving and speeding.
Spanish police are understood to be continuing their hunt for the driver.
PA