A prolific burglar who headbutted and killed an 86-year-old pensioner as he tried to protect his 91-year-old wife has been jailed for 18 years and ordered to serve another five years on licence.

Ashley Malcolm, 40, who admitted manslaughter and a string of other offences, attacked John Burke while burgling the couple's flat in Hackney, north London, late on 29 September last year.

During sentencing at the Old Bailey, Judge Simon Mayo KC, said: "You entered the home of two elderly and vulnerable occupants. The burglary took place over a prolonged period."

Reece Lambert told the court that he believed his grandfather was attacked as he "protected the woman he loved with everything he had left".

Malcolm broke into the couple's home on Fountayne Road shortly before midnight and spent about 90 minutes inside before leaving with a shopping trolley full of items.

He then returned and spent another 20 minutes in the flat, before leaving with a box under his arm.

A carer arrived at the home the following morning and found a broken window and the kitchen in a mess.

She found Burke injured and he told her: "Oh thanks you're here. He attacked me. He beat me up last night around 23:00 GMT, a 6ft-tall man. He used to be one of the caretakers."

He then told paramedics he had been headbutted by two men but had been too afraid to leave his bedroom to call the emergency services.

The court heard how Burke was in poor health and had dementia.

He was taken to Homerton Hospital but he was discharged at 14:35.

The following morning, his son Sean found him unconscious on his bedroom floor and he was taken back to hospital.

Doctors then found he had suffered a "devastating and irreversible" brain injury in the attack, along with a broken nose. Burke died later that day.

His wife, Peggy, who also has dementia, slept through the break-ins.

After burgling Burke's home, Malcolm also targeted a care home in Hackney where he ran towards a support worker making "loud groaning noises".

About 30 minutes later, he tried to break into a couple's flat in Stamford Hill with a screwdriver before attacking the husband with a bicycle pump.

Burke's son, Sean, described his father as a "quiet, hard-working, easy-going man who never had a bad word for anyone".

"He was the man that showed me that hard work, respect, good manners and a good heart would always pay off."

He added: "Looking back now on the events of that night it angers me to think what this man had put my dad through.

"To think that this man felt that he had to attack my dad who was a vulnerable and frail elderly person who would never have been able to fight back.

"There was nothing of any value in the house as my parents did not have much but they had each other."

Malcolm admitted two burglaries and attempted burglaries. He denied murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Over the past 20 years, Malcolm had 12 other convictions for burglary and attempted burglary and 10 for assault, including headbutting and biting part of a prison officer's ear off.