text: Pauline King, described by police as a "reclusive hermit", was found at The Avenues on 22 February.
  Alexander Kerry, 23, of Kinghorn Road, Norwich, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court after he entered a guilty plea.
  He denied a charge of sexual assault and the prosecution chose not to proceed on that count.
  Ms King died as a result of a sustained assault with a knife and hammer during a burglary at her home, the court was told.
  She lived alone in what police described as a "dilapidated" detached house and neighbours said she was a pleasant but reclusive woman.
  Kerry was found later the same day wandering nearby streets covered in blood.
  Det Sup Paul Durham described it as a "vile murder" which "sent a shudder of fear" through the community.
  Prosecutor Andrew Jackson said Kerry, desperate for money after drinking in a Norwich city centre pub, had broken into the home and beat Ms King to death.
  He then tried to set fire to the house to destroy the evidence, he said.
  The court heard he was left deeply damaged after his father murdered his mother as he and his brother slept at their home in 2002.
  Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said he acted with "animal brutality" to murder Miss King and sexually abuse her dying body in an "act of desecration".
  He said: "Nothing begins to explain what you did to Pauline King. She must have suffered terribly."
  Kerry had a criminal record including violence and disorderly behaviour dating back to his teens, he said.
  Jonathan Goodman, mitigating, said his client had "self-medicated" through alcohol and drugs following the almost "unimaginable" events of his childhood.
target: A man who admitted the "vile murder" of an 82-year-old woman in her Norwich home has been jailed for life, with an order to serve 25 years and six months.