Oxford - A man who stabbed George Harrison because he believed he was possessed by the former Beatle was ordered on Wednesday to be confined to a mental hospital after he was acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity.
Judge Michael Astill said Michael Abram would be held "without time restriction" and must gain the approval of a mental health tribunal if he sought release.
Abram, 34, had been accused of breaking into Harrison's home in Henley-on-Thames, west of London, and stabbing him repeatedly, puncturing a lung. He also was charged with attacking Harrison's wife, Olivia, when she came to her husband's defence.
In a statement read outside Oxford crown court by the couple's son, Dhani, the Harrisons criticised the "ancient lunatic law" that allowed acquittal on mental grounds.
"It is a tragic occurence that anyone should suffer such a mental breakdown, but we can never forget he was full of hate and violence when he came into our home," said the statement.
Abram had been in and out of psychiatric facilities for years and sought help in the weeks before the attack on December 30 1999. After the verdict, his mother, Lynda, said he was "well on the road to recovery".
"I can only add that he is deeply contrite about what he did and has expressed sincere apologies to George Harrison, his wife and his family," she said.
Abram's lawyer later released a letter he said Abram had written to apologise to the Harrisons, saying the many doctors he had seen before the attack never told him he had a mental illness.
Earlier on Wednesday, the second day of the trial, Astill had instructed jurors to find Abram innocent by reason of insanity after three psychiatrists testified he had been a paranoid schizophrenic since 1990.
The judge denied the Harrisons' request to be informed if Abram was ever under consideration for release, saying that would be a matter only for medical experts.
Dhani Harrison - his mother standing stoically at his side - said his parents would petition the British government to be informed if Abram ever was set free.
"The prospect of him being released back into society is abhorrent to us," he said.
Abram had told psychiatrists he was on a "mission from God" when he rampaged through the Harrisons' 120-room Friar Park mansion, attacking the couple with a knife, a table lamp, a pole from a broken statue and an electrical cord.
In written testimony read to the jury on Tuesday, Harrison, 57, recalled that he thought he was going to die.
"I vividly remember a deliberate thrust of the knife toward my chest. I felt my chest deflate and the flow of blood toward my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed," he wrote.
A tearful Olivia Harrison, 52, appearing in person, told jurors how she unsuccessfully tried to defend her husband.
"There was blood on the walls, blood on my hands and I realised 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.
Police eventually arrived and managed to restrain Abram.
On Wednesday, one psychiatrist, Nigel Eastman, told jurors that Abram thought all four members of The Beatles were practitioners of black magic.
"He is not somebody who wanted to kill, but he was driven to it," Eastman said.
Philip Joseph, another psychiatrist, said Abram believed The Beatles "are flying around on broomsticks and possessing people".
"He could see how all roads were leading to George Harrison, who was teaching others how to possess people," said Joseph.
Abram "believed Paul McCartney was in his head, tormenting him. He realised that it was George Harrison behind this, telling Paul McCartney what to do", said the psychiatrist.
Eastman said Abram later told him: "I believe all of it was wrong. He was not a witch. The Beatles are not witches. I read it all wrong. I was very ill."
All three doctors said Abram had responded well to anti-psychotic drugs, but would be a risk to society if released immediately from a psychiatric hospital. - Sapa-AP