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Revision as of 18:45, 22 November 2005 by Flapdragon (talk | contribs) (identity parade->photograph identity parade)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Abigail Witchalls (born in 1979) is a British woman who was left paralysed after being stabbed in front of her twenty-one-month old son Joseph in Surrey, England, on 20 April 2005.
She was born into a devout Catholic family with ties to the Lay Community of St Benedict; her maiden name was Hollins. She married Benoit Witchalls in October 2002.
On 20 April 2005, Abigail, while out walking with her son, was attacked by an unknown man, and was stabbed in the neck. She was three months pregnant at the time. She was found by a neighbour, and was taken to hospital. She was paralysed and unable to speak, and remained in intensive care for several weeks. Police arrested three people, but later released them.
On 12 May, a 23-year-old garden centre worker, Richard Cazaly, who lived close to the scene of the attack, apparently committed suicide in Scotland. Police revealed that he was a suspect. In a letter written shortly before his suicide he had confessed that, although he had no memory of the incident, he thought he might have been guilty of the murder.
On 18 May, Witchalls's husband, Benoit, was interviewed on BBC's Crimewatch programme, and said that he and his wife felt no anger towards the attacker. Discussing his wife's future, he said, "People live wonderful lives paralysed from the neck down. Our expectations have had to change drastically in the last three weeks, but that's not to say that we're not still going to live peaceful lives, with a family." Three weeks later it was announced that her unborn baby was developing normally.
Abigail's second son, Dominic Adrian, was born five weeks early on 11 November, 2005. The birth was a natural one, and it was anounced that she was breastfeeding, having regained some use of her arm.
On 22 November police announced that if Cazaly had been arrested in time he would have been charged with murder, and that they considered the case solved, in spite of Witchalls's failure to pick him out in a photograph identity parade.