DOCTORS treating Abigail Witchalls, who was left paralysed by a horrific knife attack nearly two months ago, last night confirmed that her unborn baby is healthy.

Witchalls and her husband Benoit are understood to have seen the baby for the first time on a hospital ultrasound scan.

There is no sign that the unborn baby, then only a month old, was harmed in the attack on the 26-year-old mother as she pushed her toddler son Joseph home in his buggy from a playgroup.

Last night a statement released on her behalf by the Royal National Orthopaedic hospital in London said: “Abigail and her family are happy to confirm that she is 12 weeks pregnant, and that she and the baby are doing well.”

“They are both being monitored regularly by a midwife and an obstetrician. Abigail and her family would like to thank everybody for their kind wishes but would like some privacy at this time.”

It is believed Witchalls and her family initially wished to keep the pregnancy secret, fearing her condition might lead to complications. She was paralysed from the neck down after the attack on April 20, but doctors say her condition is gradually improving and she can now breathe without the aid of a ventilator for some of the time.

She has been moved out of intensive care into a unit specialising in spinal injuries, which the hospital has described as “significant progress”.

Joseph, then aged 20 months, had a knife held to his throat before the attacker stabbed his mother in the neck as she walked down a country lane in Little Bookham, Surrey.

DNA tests on the buggy Witchalls was pushing have proved inconclusive, and she was unable to identify prime suspect Richard Cazaly as her attacker in a photo parade last week. Witchalls was said to be “disappointed” but is continuing to help police through a series of blinks and facial gestures.

However, police confirmed that a new witness who was in the area at the time of the attack had come forward and would participate in a similar identification process.

Cazaly, 23, who lived nearby, committed suicide in Scotland days after the attack, leaving a note to his Australian girlfriend in which he said: “I can’t remember, but I must have done it.”

A 25-year-old Surrey man is the other main suspect.

Last night police declined to comment on reports that new forensic evidence, including the tyre tracks of his car, had surfaced linking Cazaly to the attack.

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