THE world’s only sniffer dog trained to detect human blood was deployed yesterday to try to find the knife used in the attack that left a young mother paralysed.

Keela, an 18-month-old springer spaniel, is one of four specialist dogs searching woodlands near Little Bookham, Surrey, where Abigail Witchalls was stabbed in the neck in April while walking with her young son, Joseph.

Mrs Witchalls remains seriously ill and largely disabled but her husband, Benoit, said that he and his wife had “a lot of hope and are quite positive”.

The dogs, two from South Yorkshire Police and two from Dyfed-Powys Police, are trained to pick up scents that are several weeks old and from crime scenes that are contaminated. Among the scents that they have been given is that of Richard Cazaly, a key suspect, who used to go poaching in the woods being searched. The scents are extracted from fabrics and materials and implanted on a pad for the dogs.

Cazaly, 23, disappeared on the day that police made a highly publicised witness appeal. He travelled to Scotland, where he committed suicide by taking a drug overdose. He left two cryptic notes referring to the attack.

Mrs Witchalls, 26, provided detectives with a detailed description of the white male who attacked her. But she has not yet been able to take part in a photographic identity parade.

Detective Chief Inspector Brian Russell, of Surrey Police, said that after weeks of gathering evidence the specialist dogs could be given specific scents to trace.

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