A trainee priest who plunged 20ft from a loft window, where he was smoking with three friends, has atonished doctors after showing signs of recovery.

John Paul Lyttle, 28, met the woman and two men, aged between 18 and 21, on Sunday night before they returned to the terraced house in Clifton Road, Isleworth, where he was staying with Reverend Ray Lyons.

His three pals told officers in a police interview that Mr Lyttle, a talented pianist who was studying for the Catholic priesthood, was sitting on the window ledge before he accidentally fell at about 4am, landing on a concrete patio.

Ambulance crews arrived to find Mr Lyttle with severe head and back injuries. He has been in a coma at Charing Cross hospital ever since, but is believed to have regained some awareness and sense of touch yesterday.

Rev Lyons, fighting back tears, said: “He is a young man of incredible faith, he is an inspiration. We’ve been contacted by people from across the globe, it’s astonishing.

“I have known him for almost 11 years since he started his road to the priesthood. I was his communications director for five years so we have an extremely close friendship.”

Rev Lyons, who has lived in Isleworth for 29 years and had been away at the weekend, said Mr Lyttle was talking to his friends about his faith before he fell.

Detective Inspector Alan Holford, of Hounslow Police, said: “We are still investigating the circumstances but it does appear to be a tragic incident rather than anything sinister. There is nothing to suggest he has been pushed at all.”

Mr Lyttle’s family, originally from Belfast, flew from Guernsey on Monday to be by his bedside along with friends and Rev Lyons.

Ben Colangelo, manager of the Ards Friary, in County Donegal, Ireland, where Mr Lyttle worked in 2007, said everyone at the centre was “absolutely devastated”.

He said: “He was my right hand man for a good many months. He was loved by everybody here, he is a very talented musician, very involved with the parish and the church. We just ask people for their prayers because he is in a critical situation.”

Mr Lyttle travelled to Zambia for six months in October 2007 to work with the poor, before returning to join the Montford Missionaries of Mary in Southampton.

Mr Colangelo said: “He always wanted to serve the poor and work with the poor. He was there for just under a year and had a change of heart and realised he wanted to be a secular priest and applied to the archdiocese of Birmingham.”

Police cordoned off the building on Monday while officers spoke to neighbours and three other residents in the appartment block.

Det Insp Holford said police were treating the fall as an “unexplained incident,” and forensic officers were still carrying out tests.

Anyone with information should contact Hounslow CID on 0208 2476160, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.