Lisa Voice, one of Britain’s richest women, has had to undergo 11 operations to reconstruct her face after the unprovoked attack last June.

Voice’s lawyers hope that her decision to go public about her trauma will encourage the government, police and courts to rethink their approach to cannabis misuse. They say that her experience calls into question the government’s decision to lower the classification of cannabis, despite medical warnings that it can lead to psychosis among some users.

She was asleep when the 20-year-old family friend, who was in her home in north London, attacked her in her bedroom. He punched her repeatedly, tried to strangle her and jumped on her head.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm. Medical experts concluded that he was mentally unstable at the time of the assault due to “cannabis psychosis”. He will be sentenced at Middlesex crown court tomorrow.

Voice’s injuries were so severe that on the night of the attack doctors warned her family that she was unlikely to live. She lost some of her vision when her eye sockets were smashed and has had her nose rebuilt with ear cartilage.

Over the past eight months Voice, a 52-year-old mother of two, has also had titanium plates inserted into her face to hold her cheeks together and underwent a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe.

A music producer who has worked with pop stars from Sir Tom Jones to Lemar, Voice has also built up a property investment company. At the time of the attack Hollywood film makers were working on a movie about her life, including her 12-year relationship with Billy Fury, the rock star, who died in 1983.

Speaking from her home yesterday, Voice, who is worth £29m according to the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “He (her attacker) was a kind, sweet boy I had known for more than a year and welcomed into the family. But a few days before the attack I noticed he was acting strangely. I suspected he was smoking cannabis.

“Then I woke up to find myself being attacked. He broke my jaw, totally destroyed my nose, smashed my skull and my whole face now needs wires and metal plates to function. I am a bionic woman as a result of this assault.”

Voice’s life was shattered on the morning of June 7, 2005, with a sharp blow to her head while she was still asleep. Punch after punch rained down on her and she was dragged out of bed. Her attacker then began to jump on her head. She thought her life was over.

“I was yanked out of bed. He was punching me continually. It was just petrifying,” Voice said yesterday. “I could feel my jaw swinging everywhere, my cheeks were hanging off, he smashed my nose to pieces. But then he started jumping on my head. He was strangling me. My eye sockets were smashed and I was lying there in a pool of blood.”

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Voice was aware of her two teenage children in the room desperately struggling to stop the attacker. “My daughter was shouting, ‘He’s killed my mum, he’s killed my mum’,” she said. “Her nails were torn off trying to stop him.”

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