Harrison Assailant Pleads Insanity
November 14 -- Lawyers for Michael Abram, the man accused of attempting to murder former Beatle George Harrison and his wife, Olivia, in their home in December, admitted that he carried out the attack as his trial opened Tuesday in Oxford Crown Court. But the defense also asserts that Abram, 34, is not guilty of the two murder charges that he faces by reason of insanity.
"The central issue to resolve in the case is whether at the time of the incident, the defendant was sane or insane," prosecution lawyer Simon Mayo told the jury, adding that "[Mr. Abram] thought he had been sent on a mission by God to kill George Harrison."
On Dec. 30, Abram — a native of the Beatles' hometown, Liverpool — allegedly broke into Harrison's 120-room mansion in Henley-on-Thames, about 25 miles outside London.
Harrison, 57, and his wife fought off the intruder, and Harrison suffered a stab wound in the chest that missed his heart by an inch and collapsed his right lung. "I vividly remember a deliberate thrust of the knife towards my chest," said Harrison, who did not appear in court, in a written statement prepared as evidence. "I felt my chest deflate and the flow of blood towards my mouth.
"I believed I had been fatally stabbed."
Mrs. Harrison, who was scratched and bruised during the incident and said she had struck her husband's assailant repeatedly in the back of the head with a brass poker, did appear in court.
"There was blood on the walls, blood on my hands, and I realized that we were going to be murdered and this man was succeeding in murdering us and there was absolutely nobody else there to help," she said. The attack was ended when police rushed to the scene and apprehended Abram.
"I represent the individual who carried out the appalling attack," said defense lawyer Tim King as he cross-examined Mrs. Harrison.
Abram sat silently through the hearing, speaking only to answer his name. His trial is expected to last until Thursday or Friday. If acquitted due to his mental condition, Abram would be ordered held in a psychiatric hospital.
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