On 20 April 2005, Witchalls, while out walking with her 21-month-old son Joseph in Surrey, was attacked by an unknown man, and was stabbed in the neck.
She was paralysed and unable to speak, and remained in intensive care for several weeks, communicating with her family and police by blinking.
On 28 April 2005, a 23-year-old garden centre worker, Richard Cazaly, who lived close to the scene of the attack, took an overdose.
He had driven to Scotland two days earlier and died at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 30 April of liver failure.
On 18 May 2005, Witchalls' husband, Benoit, was interviewed on BBC's Crimewatch programme, and said that he and his wife felt no anger towards the attacker.
[3] On 22 November 2005, the police said that if Cazaly had been arrested in time, he would have been charged with attempted murder, and that they considered the case solved, despite the victim's failure to pick him out in a photograph identity parade.
[8] Witchalls gave birth to a healthy daughter, Rebecca Grace, at St George's Hospital, Tooting, on 6 June 2010.