A NORTH-EAST soldier who was seriously injured in a road accident in Iraq has returned to Britain.

Jane McLaughlin, a military police corporal, from Hartlepool, Teesside, suffered severe head injuries, a punctured lung, broken leg, ribs and pelvis, and a damaged liver following a road accident outside Ramala, in southern Iraq, last Wednesday.

Following the accident, she was airlifted to a field hospital in Iraq, before being treated at a US hospital in Kuwait.

The 32-year-old was flown back to Britain yesterday morning by RAF plane along with her husband, Rob, an acting staff sergeant, also in the military police.

They landed at Birmingham airport at about 9am, before being transferred by ambulance to the town's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham.

Last night, a hospital spokeswoman described her condition as critical but stable.

Her parents, John and Pat Maddison, have travelled from their home in Hartlepool to be at the hospital.

Mrs Maddison said: "Thankfully, she is now back in England and we are able to see her."

Corp McLaughlin was thrown from the Land Rover she was driving at the head of a convoy after it was hit by a US Army vehicle and overturned.

A joint investigation into the crash is being carried out by British and US Armed Forces.