Harrison

January 3, 2000
Web posted at: 2:07 p.m. EST (1907 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- An exhausted George Harrison is expected to spend "a long while yet" recovering at the English mansion in which he was stabbed in an early-morning attack Thursday, a spokesman says.

The former Beatle, 56, was released Saturday night from Harefield Hospital in west London, following treatment for slash injuries and a 1-inch stab wound that collapsed his right lung.

"George is very, very tired and is spending his time resting and recuperating," his spokesman says. "We do not foresee him leaving home for a long while yet."

Friends say the musician was lucky to escape with his life when he and wife Olivia struggled to subdue a knife-wielding intruder.

"What has not really been made clear before now is that they both fought heroically and saved each other's lives," one friend said. "It was a long, vicious struggle. It was life or death and they both believed they were going to die."

In a struggle that let them through three rooms in their mansion at Henley-on-Thames -- 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of London, the two fought off their attacker. Olivia is said to have saved her husband's life when she hit the intruder on the head with a lamp, stunning him. The Harrisons then overpowered the man and held him until police arrived.

Olivia, 51, suffered only superficial injuries and bruises.

Michael Abram, 33, was charged Friday with attempted murder in the attack. He has been admitted to a psychiatric unit for observation. His next court appearance is set for February 11.

For many, the attack has revived memories of the December 1980 killing of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman in New York. Ever since Lennon's death, security has been a constant concern for the three surviving Beatles -- and the arrest of a stalker at Harrison's Hawaii home a week before his stabbing showed what a global problem it has become.

Cristin Keleher was arrested in Harrison's Maui estate; she is scheduled to be arraigned on January 11 on charges of first-degree burglary and fourth-degree theft. Prosecutors said at a preliminary hearing on Wednesday that Keleher was stalking Harrison, who was not at the residence at the time.