George Harrison's attacker released from hospital

The mentally ill man who broke into former Beatle George Harrison's mansion, attacked him with a table lamp and repeatedly stabbed him with a knife, was released from a secure hospital yesterday.

Michael Abram, who suffers from schizophrenia, was allowed out of the Scott Clinic in Rainhill, Merseyside, after a mental health review tribunal, presided over by a judge and involving an independent psychiatrist, agreed he was well enough to be released into the community.

It is understood the 36-year-old will now live in a hostel with support from a psychiatrist, nurse and social worker.

He was cleared of the attempted murder of Harrison and his wife Olivia at their home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in December 1999, on grounds of insanity. In November 2000, the trial judge at Oxford crown court ordered Abram to be detained at a secure hospital without time restriction.

George Harrison died a few months ago.

Six weeks before he attacked the Harrisons, Abram was ordered out of a psychiatric unit at Whiston hospital, Merseyside, and was deemed by staff not to be suffering from any mental illness.

He went on to target the former Beatle, whom he allegedly believed he had been sent by God on a mission to kill him.

Abram's solicitor, Peter Edwards, said yesterday the great tragedy of his client's illness was it was so eminently treatable.

A spokeswoman for Mersey Care Trust said: "In this case, the tribunal has given a conditional discharge - the conditions, which remain confidential, are to ensure the safety and security to the public."

Abram said he was very grateful to his family and lawyers for the way they have stood by him.

"If I could turn back the clock, I would give anything not to have done what I did in attacking George Harrison," he said. "But looking back on it now, I have come to understand that I was at the time not in control of my actions. I can only hope the Harrison family might somehow find it in their hearts to accept my apologies."

Knowsley and St Helens health authority was criticised in a report last October for significant failings. Its chief executive made a public apology and said lessons had been learned.

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