Beatles' tapes owner told to get psych care
AP, Jul 14, 2006 2:21 pm PDTA London judge ruled Friday that a schizophrenic who was found in possession of 504 Beatles tapes should be placed under mental health supervision for two years.
Nigel Oliver, 55, sat silently as judge Jeremy McMullen delivered his sentence, calling Oliver "the driving force" behind the missing Beatles memorabilia, which included tapes recorded during the historic "Get Back" sessions_ precursors to the final hit 1970's album "Let It Be."
Oliver's haul included more than 80 hours of long-lost footage, which he attempted to sell in Jan. 2003 to undercover police officers Amsterdam, Holland for 250,000 pounds ($460,000, or 362,000 euros).
Though he was found by a jury to have handled the stolen tapes and also Beatles guitarist George Harrison's 1960 passport on Thursday, the jury could not find Oliver "guilty" because he had been declared him unfit to plead at a previous hearing.
Documents giving out instructions for the sale and the passport were found during a police search of Oliver's home.
Cover versions of songs such as Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart were included on the tapes which held more than 200 one-time versions of Beatles songs, Neil Aspinall, the band's original road manager told the jury earlier in the trial.
It is not clear who stole the tapes that disappered between 1969-1973.
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