Police believe the stabbing of former Beatle George Harrison was a deliberate attack, rather than a bungled burglary.

The musician is recovering in hospital after being stabbed in the chest by an intruder at his home.

A man, named as Mike Abram, 33, from Liverpool, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following the attack on the star and his wife Olivia at their mansion in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire early on Thursday morning.

The officer leading the investigation for Thames Valley Police, Detective Chief Inspector Euan Read said: "I am not at all sure this is a burglary that has gone wrong, I suspect the offender has come down here deliberately.

"We are picking over his background and finding what makes him tick and why."

Mr Read said the couple, who were woken by the sound of broken glass, were attacked by a man wielding a six-inch knife after he broke into their Henley home through a kitchen window.

He said officers have recovered the weapon.

The couple grappled with the intruder and it is thought they were able to detain him until police arrived.

Merseyside Police later searched an address in Huyton, Liverpool, in connection with the incident.

The 56-year-old former Beatle was treated in The Royal Berkshire Hospital, in Reading, before being transferred to a specialist chest unit at the Harefield Hospital in Uxbridge, north west London.

His life was never in danger but Mark Gritten, a spokesman for the Royal Berkshire, said the couple were "deeply traumatised" by the incident.

Mr Gritten said Harrison had not lost his sense of humour, adding: "The quote he gave me was that the man wasn't a burglar but that he certainly wasn't auditioning for the Travelling Wilburys".

The hospital's medical director, Andrew Pengelly, said the one inch stab wound was deep enough to penetrate through the wall of Mr Harrison's chest, but the blade had missed any major organs.

He said: "It could have been an awful lot worse."

Harrison's wife, who was treated for minor injuries, is at his hospital bedside.

The man suspected of the attack was treated for minor injuries at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and was later discharged into custody at St Aldate's police station in the city.

Police said they were "keeping an open mind" about the motive and would talk to the suspect once he was well enough to interview.

Former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were told of the attack along with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

Sir Paul said: "Thank God that both George and Olivia are all right. I send them all my love."

A statement from Ringo and his wife Barbara Bach at their California home said: "Both Barbara and I are deeply shocked that this has occurred.

"We send George and Olivia all our love and wish George a speedy recovery."

The Harrisons have lived at Friar Park, a former nunnery close to the centre of Henley, for more than 20 years.

Security at the estate is tight, with high walls surrounding the grounds. It is also close to Henley's police station.

Mr Read said police were investigating how the attacker managed to get into the house undetected.

The attack came almost exactly 19 years after fellow Beatle John Lennon was shot dead outside his New York apartment by an obsessed fan.

Harrison played guitar in the Beatles, and was the "second-string" songwriter after the legendary partnership of Lennon and McCartney.

Post-Beatles, Harrison has had solo success in the 1970s, before making a 1990s comeback with The Travelling Wilburys, a group he formed with Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan.

As taken from BBC News, 30th December, 1999

Sir Paul McCartney has sent his love to his fellow former Beatle George Harrison after he and his wife Olivia were attacked at their mansion.

"Thank God that both George and Olivia are all right. I send them all my love. I have no further comment to make," said Sir Paul.

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr also sent a get well soon message. A joint statement with his wife from their California home said: "Both Barbara (Bach) and I are deeply shocked that this has occurred.

"We send George and Olivia all our love and wish George a speedy recovery."

The attack in which Harrison was stabbed in the chest by an intruder stunned friends.

Harrison's biographer Hunter Davies told Sky News: "He is the one you would least expect something dramatic to happen to.

"He has been a recluse in many ways for the last few years. He is still into spiritualism and spiritual things...he doesn't actually go out a great deal."

Former Beatles producer Sir George Martin said Harrison kept the lowest profile of the three surviving Beatles.

Security at Harrison's Henley mansion was stepped up after he became concerned after the murder of fellow band member John Lennon in 1980.

Sir George said: "I am astonished and naturally appalled by this.

"I can't imagine that it's got anything to do with the fact that George is a Beatle and the John Lennon thing.

"The house is a very grand place and I know there are always people trying to get in.

"George leads a very quiet life and is a down to earth person. He loves nothing more than doing his garden at home."

The Harrisons have lived at Friar Park, a Gothic former nunnery close to the centre of historic Henley, for more than 20 years.

Michael McInnes, the chairman of the Henley Conservative Association, lives 50 yards from Friar Park.

He told BBC News Online: "Mr Harrison usually keeps himself to himself although he is known locally, but we do respect his privacy.

"Henley is a very wealthy area but his house is particularly isolated. The house is a gothic palace, I think you would describe it as a Victoriana pile, with three entrances and I think a lot of his family live in the lodges in the grounds.

"The last big affair there was a couple of weeks ago when one of his daughter's got married," said Mr McInnes.

David Cheney, landlord of Henley's Row Barge pub, which is about 150 yards from the gates of Mr Harrison's mansion, said he had not seen the musician more than three times in 20 years.

"George is well-liked in the town," said Mr Cheney.

"This just isn't the kind of thing you expect here. I would imagine it's a fan rather than someone local."

Jean Catharell, founder of the International Beatles Fanclub, told Sky News: "I was absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe it would happen to someone like George who is the least visible of all the surviving Beatles.

"You very rarely see him out in public and his interests have really dwindled over the years because he has kept himself a very private person."

As taken from BBC News, 30th December, 1999

GEORGE HARRISON is the most private of The Beatles.

The American media still call him the "Quiet One".

And to this day he calls himself "Beatle George" in his self-effacing way.

While Paul, John and Ringo worked well with the press, George kept his own counsel.

His love of Indian mysticism and spirituality set him aside from the other three, leading to solo work crit-icised for being non-commercial.

But at early press conferences he was always regarded as the wittiest of the Fab Four with his off-the-cuff one-liners.

George, an avid motor racing fanatic and life-long fan of George Formby, loves the quiet life in his beloved Oxfordshire home.

He is rarely seen out, and the Henley-on-Thames locals respect his wishes to remain a member of the community.

Harry Benson, Beatle biographer, says of George: "Throughout his career he has been quietly determined to keep his integrity."

Bill Harry, friend of the Beatle and former editor of Merseybeat, was shocked when the ECHO told him of the knife incident.

Bill said: "George has always been a recluse. His home even has signs saying 'Keep Out.' My God this has echoes of John Lennon's attack."

As taken from Liverpool.com, 30th December, 1999

Ex-Beatle George Harrison has told a court he thought he had been fatally stabbed by an intruder at his home last December.

Michael Abram, 34, of Huyton, Merseyside, is accused of trying to kill Mr Harrison, 57, and his wife Olivia, 52, after breaking into his home in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Mr Abram is also accused of injuring the star's wife, Olivia, 52, at their 30-acre estate during the night of 30 December last year.

He has denied two counts of attempted murder by reason of insanity.

The jury will have to decide whether Mr Abram was sane or insane when the alleged attack took place.

The former Beatle made a full recovery from the attack and gave evidence to Oxford Crown Court in a written statement.

"I shouted at him 'Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna'," he said.

"I vividly remember a deliberate thrust of the knife towards my chest. I felt my chest deflate and the flow of blood towards my mouth.

"I believed I had been fatally stabbed."

The court heard how the couple were awoken by a crashing noise at 0330 GMT.

Mr Abram ran up the stairs clutching a knife and a pole from a broken statue, and began attacking Mr Harrison, the jury was told.

Mrs Harrison told the jury how she tried to save her husband from the intruder.

She said she searched for a weapon, grabbing a brass poker from another room and then found the pair grappling by a statue on the landing.

"I've never seen my husband look like that. I raised my hand and hit the man on the back of the head as many times as I could, as hard as I could. My husband said: `Get him, get him'."

Mrs Harrison was then knocked backwards by Mr Abram and found herself lying at his feet on the landing, she said.

"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."

Simon Mayo, prosecuting, told the jury earlier: "It was a very serious attack committed by the defendant on the famous musician George Harrison and also a serious attack on his wife Olivia."

He said that there would be no dispute in the case that it was Mr Abram who broke into the couple's home.

"The central issue to resolve in the case is whether at the time of the incident, the defendant was sane or insane," said Mr Mayo.

The "attack" ended after police stormed the house and arrested Mr Abram, Mr Mayo said.

Mr Mayo added: "He [Mr Abram] thought he had been sent on a mission by God to kill George Harrison."

The husband and wife were taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital where Mr Harrison was treated for multiple stab wounds.

A psychiatrist who interviewed Mr Abram deemed him unfit for police interrogation, the court was told.

The jury was told that Mr Abram had travelled down to Oxfordshire on a number of occasions to find out where Mr Harrison lived and had on one occasion asked a cleric about the geography of the area.

Mr Abram's trial is expected to last three to four days.

As taken from BBC News, 14th November, 2000

George Harrison was always regarded as the quiet one of The Beatles, but his talent spoke for itself.

After the Beatles split, he was the first to make his mark, by scoring a number one hit single with My Sweet Lord in 1970.

And despite the towering abilities of Lennon and McCartney, as a guitarist and songwriter Harrison's influence was felt on the Beatles.

He was born in 1943, the youngest of three sons, and grew up in the Wavertree district of Liverpool, not far from John Lennon and Paul McCartney's homes.

He took a liking to skiffle music, an appreciation he shared with McCartney, a friend from the Liverpool Institute.

The two also found they shared an interest in American rock'n'roll.

McCartney had joined up with a local band named the Quarry Men that included Lennon and Harrison joined the group in 1958.

In 1960, when The Quarry Men finally evolved into the Beatles, Harrison was mature enough in his style to act as guitarist.

On the set of the Beatles' 1965 movie, Help!, Harrison first picked up a peculiar-looking stringed instrument called a sitar.

This led to an interest in Indian music and Eastern religion, receiving instruction on the sitar from Ravi Shankar, and associating with the religious leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

George had always been frustrated in the songwriting department, though he did contribute such hits as Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and Here Comes the Sun, among others. Frank Sinatra said Something was one of the world's greatest love songs.

The end of the Beatles sparked in him something of a musical rebirth.

After All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974), and Somewhere in England (1981), he joined with other artists in the "super-group" The Traveling Wilburys (1988-90) and with Ringo Starr and McCartney to produce the Beatles Anthology (1995).

In 1992 he played an Albert Hall show in support of the UK's mystically-inclined Natural Law Party, but it did nothing for their electoral fortunes.

Although Oasis's Gallagher brothers often said The Beatles were a source of inspiration for their work, and took the name of their hit Wonderwall from Harrison's first album, Harrison called them egotistical "rubbish". And he was no less scathing about the Spice Girls. "The good thing about them," he told a French newspaper, "is that you can look at them with the sound turned down.

"You know what irritates me about modern music, it's all based on ego.

"Look at a group like U2. Bono and his band are so egocentric - the more you jump around, the bigger your hat is, the more people listen to your music. The only important thing is to sell and make money.

"It's nothing to do with talent."

The Beatles, he said, "had a value which will last forever".

"Today there are groups who sell lots of records and then disappear. Will we remember U2 in 30 years? Or the Spice Girls? I doubt it."

He formed Dark Horse Records in 1974, and a film company, HandMade Films, in 1978, producing a number of feature films, such as Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), Time Bandits (1981, also writing the music and lyrics), A Private Function (1984), and Withnail and I (1987).

However, in 1994 he sold the company for 5m pounds after profits slumped.

He now lives in an Oxfordshire mansion with second wife Olivia, 52, and their 22-year-old son Dhani, Harrison's only child. The couple married in 1978.

His first wife, Patti Boyd, left him in 1974 for Eric Clapton. But after an initial feud, Harrison and Clapton became friends again, and Harrison even went to the couple's wedding.

In 1998 he was treated for throat cancer, but was given the all-clear.

He is reported to have said after radiation therapy: "I'm not going to die on you folks, just yet. I am very lucky."

As taken from BBC News, 15th November, 2000

All three former Beatles have taken elaborate security precautions since the death of John Lennon at the hands of a crazed fan.

Lennon was murdered outside his apartment in the Dakota building in New York City on December 8, 1980 by Mark Chapman, who is still in jail.

After Lennon's death, George Harrison was reported to have spent more than 1m pounds protecting his Oxfordshire mansion from intruders.

Harrison's 120-room Friar Park mansion, which he bought and restored nearly 29 years ago, has a high perimeter wall covered with razor wire.

Security cameras scan the grounds 24 hours a day, while a sign on the 12ft high electrically operated entrance gates warns dogs are on patrol inside.

An alarm system links directly to the local police station.

But locals in Henley-on-Thames said the walls and fences surrounding the home were sometimes left in a state of disrepair.

Over the years Harrison had received several threats to his life and family.

In 1992 the FBI disclosed that a fan had been threatening to burn his house to the ground.

Harrison once said: "The death of John brought out a lot of crazies. But you have to take care in case there is the odd one - like Chapman - who will act upon his madness."

It was the early hours of 30 December last year, when all the lavish security measures failed and Mr Abram, a former heroin addict with a history of mental health problems, got into the house

He had travelled south from his home in Huyton, Merseyside.

When he smashed a window at 03:00 GMT he awoke Harrison and his wife Olivia, who were asleep in an upstairs bedroom.

Harrison telephoned a member of staff in the grounds and told them to call 999 as he thought there was a burglar in the house.

As he walked downstairs, Harrison was confronted by Mr Abram and slashed three times across the chest, and stabbed.

The stab wound, according to surgeons, came within half-an-inch of ending his life.

He was stabbed in the right side of the chest, the blade entering just below the collar bone, and narrowly missing a main blood vessel connecting the heart and the head.

Andrew Pengelli, medical director of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, said at the time: "If that had ruptured he would have perished within a matter of minutes from internal bleeding. He was extremely lucky."

The 10-minute struggle ended when 52-year-old Olivia Harrison struck Abram over the head with a table lamp, almost knocking him cold.

Police arrested the injured Abram without a struggle as he was slumped on the landing.

Officers said that without Mrs Harrison's intervention the situation could have been "much worse" and that "she is the real hero".

After treatment at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Harrison was transferred to the specialist chest unit at Harefield Hospital, west London.

He joked to staff that the intruder "certainly wasn't auditioning for the Travelling Wilburys" - the band he formed with Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison in the 80s.

It was reported that after Harrison left hospital and returned to Friar Park, he hired former SAS soldiers to tighten security.

As taken from BBC News, 15th November, 2000

The jury in the case of the man accused of trying to kill ex-Beatle George Harrison has retired to consider its verdict.

Earlier, Oxford Crown Court heard that Michael Abram, 34, of Huyton, Merseyside, thought Harrison had possessed him and that all the Beatles were witches.

Mr Abram, of Huyton, Merseyside, denies trying to kill Mr Harrison, 57, and his wife Olivia, 52, on 30 December last year.

Mr Abram was a paranoid schizophrenic, psychiatrist Dr Phillip Joseph told the court.

He said Mr Abram, a father-of-two, started to go off the rails after his relationship with his girlfriend, Jeanette, broke down.

The court heard how Mr Abram's condition deteriorated after the solar eclipse in August last year and he felt he was on a mission from God.

He would sit on an upturned pot plant in his flat listening to music, said Dr Joseph.

"He was trying to make sense of what was going on in his mind," he told the jury.

"He began to realise that the person behind this was George Harrison and realised that he was the phantom menace."

That belief came about after Mr Abram imagined his ex-girlfriend had stolen ¢G80,000 from a drug dealer, encouraged by Mr Harrison.

He developed this conviction after listening to the refrain "it's gonna take money" from a George Harrison song, Got My Mind Set on You.

It was by a process of elimination that he thought Mr Harrison was the Alien from Hell.

"He thought the Beatles were witches flying on broomsticks from hell," said Dr Joseph.

Dr Joseph said Mr Abram's condition worsened and he decided to confront Mr Harrison.

He said Mr Abram told him about the break-in six months afterwards.

Mr Harrison had told the court on Tuesday that he had shouted "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" in a bid to confuse his attacker.

Dr Joseph said on Wednesday: "George Harrison spoke something backwards to him. He (Mr Abram) thought he was cursing him in the devil's tongue.

"He realised it was all true and George Harrison was shouting at him, he was a witch.

"He thought that if George Harrison had talked normally to him at this point he would not have gone through with it because he didn't want to."

Dr Joseph added: "George Harrison ran at him. The thought of killing Harrison went through his head.

"He stabbed him in the area of the heart with the intention of killing him.

"As he was stabbing he realised it was George Harrison but he also realised he was a witch who had possessed him. He was killing him to make it all stop."

Abram was said to have expressed considerable remorse to the psychiatrist and wanted to write a letter to the family.

Earlier the court heard how Mr Abram interrupted a church service to ask the priest how to find the star's home, a court heard.

Simon Mayo, prosecuting at Oxford Crown Court, said Mr Abram spoke to the Reverend David Buskill as he walked down the central aisle of the church during the service.

Mr Abram allegedly said: "Can you tell me where the squire lives?"

The court was told the cleric thought at first Mr Abram was talking about God, but then realised he meant Mr Harrison.

The trial continues.

As taken from BBC News, 15th November, 2000

A paranoid schizophrenic has been found not guilty by reason of insanity of the attempted murder of ex-Beatle George Harrison and his wife by a jury on the direction of a judge.

Believing Harrison was a witch, deluded Michael Abram, of Huyton, Merseyside, broke into the star's home on Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, stabbed him repeatedly and injured his wife as she came to her millionaire husband's aid.

The jury at Oxford Crown Court took one hour and two minutes to return its verdicts after hearing that the 34-year-old former heroin addict believed he was possessed by Harrison and was on "a mission from God" to kill him.

Living alone in a squalid flat on the 10th floor of a near-deserted Merseyside tower block, Michael Abram began to believe The Beatles were witches. With only his paranoid thoughts for company, the former heroin addict, nicknamed "sheephead" by local youngsters because of his wild blond hair, started to see George Harrison as the "phantom menace".

Abram had spent two weeks on the psychiatric ward of Merseyside's Whiston Hospital just over a month before the seemingly unprovoked attack.

Lynda Abram, who believes social and healthcare systems failed her son, said Abram was asked to leave after allegedly attacking a member of the nursing staff.

Mrs Abram said her son played music non-stop on his personal stereo in a bid to block out the "noises in his head". The jury heard that he would sit in the bare rooms on an upturned plant pot, consumed with persecutory delusions, listening to songs by John Lennon, Bob Marley, U2 and The Beatles.

As psychiatrist Dr Phillip Joseph explained: "His life was falling apart, he was living in squalor. He was looking for a meaning to his life but he was preoccupied by his mental illness."

As his condition deteriorated, Abram believed he was on a mission from God as he set off from his miserable flat for George Harrison's luxury mansion. When the musician shouted "Hare Krishna!" in a bid to confuse his attacker, Abram believed he was being cursed in "the devil's tongue".

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Jenny McCarthy told the trial that Abram had been suffering mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, for many years but his condition appeared to have been missed by various professionals.

Abram has been ordered to be detained "without time restriction" in hospital by the trial judge after the jury found he was insane at the time of the attack.

As taken from Ananova.com, 15th November, 2000

The man found not guilty of trying to kill ex-Beatle George Harrison has said sorry as he begins an indefinite stay in a secure hospital.

Michael Abram, 34, of Huyton, Merseyside, was found not guilty by reason of insanity, on the direction of the trial judge.

He had denied trying to kill Mr Harrison, 57, and his wife Olivia, 52, on 30 December last year.

The judge, Mr Justice Astill, described the incident as a "horrifying attack" and ordered Mr Abram to be sent to hospital "without time restriction".

After the trial, Mr Abram's solicitor read out a letter of apology from the defendant.

"I'm writing this letter in the hope that it would be passed on to Mr and Mrs Harrison.

"I wished to say how sorry I am for the alarm, distress and injury that I have caused when I was ill.

"I have seen many doctors prior to the attack and I was never told that I was suffering with schizophrenia or any mental illness.

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

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."

George Harrison's son Dhani said outside the court: "It's tragic anyone should suffer such a mental breakdown.

"We can never forget he was full of hatred and violence when he came into our home.

"Naturally the prospect of him being released back into society is abhorrent to us."

He said the family would ask the home secretary to notify them if Mr Abram was to re-enter the community, after the judge refused their application.

"We will now continue to rebuild our lives," he added, saying his father was "doing fine".

Oxford Crown Court heard Mr Abram was a paranoid schizophrenic, who thought Harrison had possessed him and that all the Beatles were witches.

He attacked Mr Harrison and his wife believing he was possessed by the former Beatle and was on a mission from God, the court had heard.

Mr Abram broke into the Harrisons' mansion house in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, at about 0330GMT and attacked the couple, stabbing Mr Harrison.

The former Beatle gave a written statement to the court saying he was convinced he had been fatally stabbed.

Mr Harrison's stab wound missed his heart by an inch, leaving him with a punctured lung.

Andrew Pengally, a surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where Mr Harrison was taken, said he was lucky to be alive.

"There was a stab wound higher up his body which fortunately did not penetrate," he said.

"If it had done it could have hit some major blood vessels."

Psychiatrists had testified that Mr Abram had responded well to anti-psychotic drugs, but would be a risk to society if released immediately from hospital.

His mother, Lynda, told the BBC she hoped the Harrisons would be able to forgive him.

"He was a very ill man last year. Under normal circumstances, he would never do anything like this," she said.

"He is a lovely lad."

She said her son had been let down by doctors over the last nine years.

Mental health charities are now calling for an inquiry into the case.

Zito Trust spokesman Michael Howlitt said: "The way it is a number of people are having to be attacked in order to get treatment for the patient or offender who has committed the attack."

As taken from BBC News, 16th November, 2000

An independent inquiry is to be launched into the care of a man cleared of trying to kill former Beatle George Harrison and his wife Olivia.

A judge at Oxford Crown Court yesterday told Michael Abram that he would be detained indefinitely in hospital after ordering a jury to acquit him by reason of insanity.

Abram's mother Lynda was yesterday critical of the care afforded to her son saying: "All the alarm bells were ringing but they were dismissed."

During the two-day trial, the court heard how the 34 year old, of Huyton, Merseyside, stabbed the star at least 10 times and battered him senseless with a table lamp.

He believed Harrison was an "alien from Hell" and thought he was on a "mission from God" as he broke into Harrison's luxury Oxfordshire mansion.

Dr Martin Murphy, acting chief executive of St Helens and Knowsley NHS Health Authority, said bosses had now studied the comments made by the trial judge.

"The comments contain no criticism of the health or social services care that was provided to Michael Abram.

"However, in view of the serious nature of the incident and the possibility that further lessons could be learned, the Health Authority has instigated an external health inquiry into the case.

"This is a regular feature of good practice to ensure that all measures are taken to prevent a similar incident in the future," he added.

As taken from Ananova.com, 16th November, 2000

The findings of an inquiry into the care of a schizophrenic who repeatedly stabbed George Harrison are due to be published.

Michael Abram was detained indefinitely in a secure hospital following a two-day trial at Oxford Crown Court in November last year.

Abram, from Huyton, Merseyside, was charged with the attempted murder of the musician and his wife Olivia at their Oxfordshire mansion.

The jury was told to acquit deluded Abram, who believed the Beatles were "witches", on the grounds that he was temporarily insane.

Believing he was on a mission from God, Abram, now 35, staked out the Harrisons' 34-acre Henley-on-Thames estate before breaking in early one morning.

Harrison was battered senseless with a table lamp and stabbed at least 10 times by the intruder who threatened to kill his wife with electrical flex.

In a frantic effort to save her husband, Mrs Harrison, described in court as a "model of bravery", hit Abram with a brass poker and then a table lamp.

The paranoid schizophrenic had spent two weeks on the psychiatric ward at Whiston Hospital, on Merseyside, a month prior to the December 1999 attack but was sent home following an alleged assault on a nurse.

At the time he was living in a squalid flat on the 10th floor of a near-deserted tower block in the Page Moss area of Huyton.

His mother Lynda was critical of the care afforded to her son, saying: "All the alarm bells were ringing but they were dismissed."

As taken from Ananova.com, 23rd October, 2001