Ex-Beatle Harrison, wife stabbed at London home

LONDON, DECEMBER 30: Former Beatles member George Harrison and his wife Olivia were stabbed at their home west of London early today and w...

LONDON, DECEMBER 30: Former Beatles member George Harrison and his wife Olivia were stabbed at their home west of London early today and were in hospital with chest wounds, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman told Reuters that a man had been arrested at the Harrisons’ home in Henley-on-Thames on suspicion of attempted murder.

“The injuries aren’t life-threatening. It looks like a stabbing,” police spokesman Guy Bailey said.

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He said a member of the Harrisons’ staff telephoned police to report an attack by an intruder at 3:30 am today.

Bailey said Harrison, who was stabbed four times in the chest, fought with the intruder to protect his wife who also suffered head injuries.

The attack happened 19 years after another Beatles member, John Lennon, was shot dead on December 8, 1980 by obsessed fan Mark Chapman outside his New York apartment building.

Harrison, 56, the former lead guitarist of the Beatles, lived for many years in the shadow of Lennon and Paul McCartney and was rated a major musician in his own right only after the break-up of the “fab four”.

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During the group’s reign as the kings of pop music, the Beatles’ youngest member became devoted to Oriental mysticism.