Schizophrenic knifeman whose illness was dismissed as side-effect of drug taking

On a chilly day last December, a tall man with long, unkempt hair and staring eyes armed himself with a knife and set off on a mission.

Michael Abram believed he was St Michael and had been ordered by God to kill George Harrison. He thought the former Beatle was a witch, a "phantom menace" who was possessing him.

He failed in his mission because Harrison's wife, Olivia, fought back so fiercely.

But it was not the only failure in this extraordinary case. A raft of psychiatrists saw Abram over 10 years and decided that his mental instability was caused by drug-taking. Doctors now say their colleagues failed to see what should have been obvious - that Abram was a schizophrenic who used drugs to suppress his symptoms.

There were few clues to the tragedy that was to follow in Abram's early life.

He was born in Liverpool, the son of labourer Raymond, now 54, and store worker Lynda, 52. Michael was the eldest of three children brought up in a three bedroomed council house. His mother describes him as a "normal lad" who liked football and pop music. Abram attended a Roman Catholic comprehensive school which he left aged 16, with three O-levels and a few CSEs.

He had met his girlfriend, Jeanette, at school. Later they had a daughter, Vikki, and a son, Michael junior.

Abram got a good job in telesales. He did well but found it high-pressured. Mrs Abram claims her son began smoking cannabis and later took heroin as a way of coping with the pressure to cope with stress.

But in the late 1980s Abram and Jeanette began to argue violently. In March 1990, his mother says, he was seen by a psychiatrist at Whiston hospital on Merseyside. He was diagnosed as psychotic with paranoid delusions. He was seen again the following year but then did not come into regular contact with psychiatrists.

He then split up with his girlfriend and moved into a dismal 10th floor flat in Huyton, Liverpool.

His mother said that at about this time he began having "unreal thoughts" and became obsessed with music. He was fixated on Oasis, believing the song Wonderwall was about one of the walls in his flat. He had quit work and began begging his family for money for drugs, saying this was the only way he could escape the "spooks".

From 1996 he had regular contact with doctors and psychiatrists. But the conclusion was that his problems stemmed from drug abuse.

At one point in 1997 he was admitted to hospital and stayed, according to his mother, for 11 days but was then discharged.

Mrs Abram said he turned up at the family home. She said: "He sobbed and said, 'Nobody can help me'. I could see the real fear in him."

He bought headphones and played music on a personal cassette player, apparently because it stopped the voices. And then one day he borrowed his mother's Beatles tapes. She said: "He became obsessed."

At one time he became convinced that he was the fifth Beatle. Standing 6ft 4in, he became a familiar sight in Liverpool walking down the street and singing Beatles lyrics. Finally, in January 1998 one doctor diagnosed Abram as being schizophrenic but he discharged himself. By April the psychiatrists who were treating him had decided he was not schizophrenic and his mental state was put down instead to his drug-taking. His mother said: "I was desperate for help with him so I looked up schizophrenia and to me it all seemed to fit with the things he said and did." Last year he became obsessed with the eclipse and began to believe he had been possessed by a "phantom menace", a figure who had been predicted by Nostradamus. He believed he had been chosen by God to rid the world of drugs and suddenly came off heroin, but this made his mental state even worse.

In October last year he first mentioned George Harrison. She said: "We were just chatting when he snapped his fingers and said, 'I've got it - Paul McCartney is a witch but George Harrison is the boss'." He linked Harrison with the phantom menace.

Abram was arrested three times within 10 days in November last year. The police realised something was badly wrong and took him to Whiston. But on November 17 there was a confrontation with a nurse and he was escorted out, to the horror of his family. Until the time of the attack he had no more contact with psychiatrists.

Mrs Abram said: "It is incredible that the nurses ignored his symptoms. He must have been talking about the Beatles while he was in there saying that he was on a mission." By Christmas, Mrs Abram said, her son was "desperately ill".At Christmas, Mrs Abram said, he made the trip from Liverpool to Harrison's home. He asked a priest about Harrison, peered over the fence of his mansion, and sang in the square hoping to provoke an uprising against the star.

On December 29 he returned, intending to kill Harrison. Later he told psychiatrists that he hoped he would be picked up by security guards. He used a stone angel to batter his way through a window in the early hours of December 30.

The intruder spotted Harrison on a first floor gallery. Abram later said that Harrison had asked him who he was. He replied: "You know who I am." Abram said he believed Harrison then spoke in "the devil's tongue".

The court was told that this was likely to be Harrison chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna", in a vain attempt to distract Abram.

The attacker later said that if Harrison had talked to him normally he probably would not have attacked him.

Abram told police that he had not broken any law because it said in the Bible that it was right to kill sorcerers and witches.

After the attack, Mrs Abram said, she had a call from a psychiatrist who had examined her son. He told her that Michael was very ill. She said: "This psychiatrist had only seen him for two half-hour sessions and it seemed he had diagnosed him that quickly. I was astonished: he was telling me he suspected that Michael was a paranoid schizophrenic and would need treatment."

Abram is now being treated at the Scott Clinic, a psychiatric unit in Merseyside. His mother said: "Now Michael is absolutely brilliant ... the son I had years ago." She said he had accepted he would be on medication for the rest of his life and feels huge remorse.

Mrs Abram is calling for a full inquiry into why her son did not receive proper treatment before the attack.

She said: "I realise that services for mental health are badly underfunded. It is the Cinderella of the NHS. It is time that was changed."

Letter of regret

Michael Abram's solicitor last night revealed a letter of apology the defendant had written to the Harrison family.

The letter, addressed to the crown prosecution service, read:

"I'm writing this in the hope that it will be passed on to Mr and Mrs Harrison. I wish to say how sorry I am for the alarm, distress and injury that I have caused when I was ill.

"I have seen many expert doctors prior to December 30, 1999, and yet I've never been told that I was suffering with schizophrenia or any mental illness.

"I thought my delusions were real and that everything that I was experiencing was some kind of witchcraft.

"I can see that all the things I believed then were not true and were just part of my illness.

"I know that Mr and Mrs Harrison fought for their lives on December 30, 1999, and that they must have been terrified by the lunatic in their house.

"I am very glad that I did not do any worse damage and I certainly do not blame them for any of the injuries I received myself.

"I am very sorry that this happened but I do not believe that it was all my fault as I was very ill at the time.

"I hope that Mr and Mrs Harrison can accept my sincere apologies. Yours sincerely, M. Abram."

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