The jury was told how Harrison and his wife Olivia fought with Michael Abrams who was armed with a knife and part of a stone sword broken from a statue of St George and the Dragon at the couple's Oxfordshire mansion.

In a statement read to the court, Harrison described tasting blood in his mouth as he lay on his back upstairs in his home, and hearing his lung deflate when Abrams plunged the knife into his chest. "There was a time during this violent struggle that I truly believed I was dying," he said.

He said he chanted "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna" at the man, in a vain effort to distract him.

Oxford crown court heard that three psychiatrists who have examined Abrams concluded that he intended to kill Harri son because he believed the star had possessed him. But they also decided that he did not realise he was doing wrong because of these "delusional" beliefs.

There was no dispute, the prosecution said, that Abrams, who is from Liverpool, carried out the attack on December 30 last year. But it was up to the jury to decide if his plea that he was not guilty of attempting to kill Harrison and his wife "by reason of insanity" should be accepted. According to the prosecution, the defendant believed God had sent him on the murder mission.

Abrams, 34, who wore a pinstriped suit in court, showed no emotion as a vivid statement which Harrison gave to police after the attack was read out in court.

Harrison, 57, said that he had locked up and joined his wife in bed at around 2.10am. He had spent the previous evening visiting his brother and had watched a film at his mansion at Henley-on-Thames, which is surrounded by a high security fence.

At about 3.20am Olivia Harrison awakened her husband to say she had heard smashing glass. Her first thought was that a chandelier had fallen but she soon realised that someone must be in the house. Harrison said in his police statement that he put a jacket over his pyjamas and slipped on a pair of boots.

While Mrs Harrison phoned staff and the police he went down to the kitchen and found a window broken. Lying nearby was a stone wing which Harrison recognised from the statute of St George.

He smelled cigarette smoke and shouted to his wife that someone was in the house. He went back upstairs but then came back out on to a gallery that overlooks the ground floor. Glancing down, he saw an intruder in the main hall.

Harrison said: "He stopped in the centre of the room and looked towards me. He started shouting and screaming." The man was yelling: "You get down here." Harrison asked who he was. The man replied: "You know, get down here."

Harrison spotted the knife and the stone sword; a "personal memory" of another incident - which he did not specify - flashed through his mind. He said: "I made the decision to shout back at him to distract him. I looked down and shouted Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna."

The tactic did not work and the intruder advanced up the stairs. Knowing that his wife and mother-in-law were in the house Harrison decided to fight back. Armed only with the "element of surprise" he lunged at Abrams.

"My first instinct was to grab for the knife," Harrison said.

"We fell to the floor," he continued. "I was fending off blows with my hands. He was on top of me and stabbing down at my upper body."

Mrs Harrison came out and began hitting Abrams with a small brass poker. The intruder chased her and grabbed her by the throat.

Harrison said he staggered after his wife and Abrams, and at one point the three of them fell into a "meditation area" with cushions scattered on the floor.

Harrison said: "I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed." The wound, one of five, caused the lung to collapse and left Harrison with breathing difficulties. His wife suffered head cuts and bruises.

Giving evidence from the witness box Mrs Harrison, 54, said: "There was blood on the walls and on the carpet. There was a moment when I realised we were going to be murdered - I realised that this man was succeeding."

Watched by the couple's son Dhani, 22, Mrs Harrison told how she grabbed a heavy table lamp and began swinging it at Abrams, who gripped the cord of the lamp and began pulling it towards him. Mrs Harrison threw the lamp at him and ran downstairs to find the police had arrived.

A police officer said that as Abrams was taken away he said: "You should have heard the spooky things he was saying, the bastard."

Prosecuting, Simon Mayo said the case was unusual. There was no dispute about what had happened but the trial was focusing on the defendant's mental condition. The trial continues.

Attacker believed he was on God's mission

Michael Abrams was described by Olivia Harrison as being "crazed and frenzied" on the night of the attack, writes Steven Morris . His hair was long, "straw-like" and unkempt, and he wore a black leather jacket. She was struck by his eyes which were "wild and staring". Throughout the attack he did not say a word - which she described as "odd".

After Abrams was arrested a police doctor examined him and concluded immediately that he was likely to be suffering from a psychotic condition and could be a paranoid schizophrenic.

The court was told that Abrams believed he was being possessed by George Harrison and had been sent on a mission by God to kill him.

Three psychiatrists were unanimous in their conclusion that he had a "complex delusional system".

He had travelled from his home in Liverpool on occasions prior to the attack and had asked local people about Harrison. On the night of the assault he was found with a cord some 100cm (40in) long on him.

Simon Mayo, prosecuting, said there was no dispute about Abrams' mental state but English law demanded that a jury makes findings on "issues of in sanity". He said that the jury may be directed to find not guilty verdicts "by reason of insanity".

Abrams, the court was told, has since expressed "considerable remorse" at his actions. He realised now how terrified the Harrisons must have been and had told doctors that he wanted to apologise to them.

In the dock Abrams looked very different to the figure who had confronted the pop star and his wife on that night.

His blond hair was cut short and he wore a smart black pinstripe suit, white shirt, pink tie and round spectacles.