Abigail out of intensive care

Abigail Witchalls has been moved out of intensive care and can sit up in a chair for short periods, doctors said today.

Mrs Witchalls, 26, who was knifed in the neck while walking with her toddler son, is said to be making good progress at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. It was at first feared she would be paralysed permanently.

A friend of the family, the Reverend Ian Macfarlane, who visited her in hospital this week, said she had been able to enjoy a picnic in the grounds with her son,

nephews and nieces. "She was

very happy to be out and about in the hospital grounds in her wheelchair," he said.

The news came as police announced a potentially crucial new witness in the case who claims to have seen a man matching the description of prime suspect Richard Cazaly near the crime scene.

The witness was riding through woods near Little Bookham, Surrey, when she saw the man a short time before the attack. Police refused to release further details of the sighting.

Detectives remain convinced that Cazaly, a parttime chef and gardener, was the knifeman who attacked Mrs Witchalls, even though she failed to pick him out in a bedside ID parade. They say circumstantial evidence points to the guilt of the 23-year-old who committed suicide in Scotland some days after the attack.

The new witness is to be shown the video ID images in the hope she will identify Cazaly as the man she saw.

A second man, 25, has been virtually ruled out as a suspect after DNA evidence

failed to link him to the scene. Mrs Witchalls was stabbed in the neck on 20 April as she pushed her 21-month-old son Joseph along a country lane in his buggy.

Yesterday, in a video ID parade in hospital, she was shown nine photographs of men but did not pick out Cazaly. It was a major setback in the police inquiry, coming days after DNA evidence also failed to link him to the assault.

Mrs Witchalls has astonished doctors with her progress since the attack, first communicating through eye blinks and then gaining some feeling in her limbs and being able to speak.

She no longer needs mechanical ventilation and is stable enough to move onto a rehabilitation ward. She can sit up in a chair with help which is an important milestone in her recovery.

But doctors are still unable to say if she will make a complete recovery.

Mr Macfarlane said: "She loves being in the fresh air. She was able to have a picnic and was enjoying herself. She was happy and it was great to see."

Asked how her family felt about lack of progress in the police inquiry, he said: "To be honest, they want to move forward. They want to concentrate on her rehabilitation. They do not want to look back."

A hospital spokesman said today in a statement: "It will still be some months until specialists will be able to form a better picture of her potential recovery.

"Abigail is making significant progress and is now breathing without the aid of a ventilator during the daytime and can talk to her family and the hospital staff, but it is quite a physical effort and she gets rather tired."