A dangerous sexual predator will be jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to the murder and attempted rape of a woman who was 94 when he broke into her Bradford care home.

Scott Sorby, 21, will learn the minimum term he must spend behind bars when he appears at Bradford Crown Court for sentence later this month.

Sorby was on prison licence after completing a four and a half year sentence for attempting to rape a student when he absconded from a bail hostel and broke into Rosewood Court care home in Shakespeare Close, Barkerend, on the evening of January 21 last year.

He sexually attacked and murdered home resident Elizabetta Pecka, who was found with facial injuries in a pool of blood in a bathroom. A chair had been wedged under the handle of a door leading to the room.

Mrs Pecka, originally of Slovenia, died after reaching her 95th birthday at St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford, on March 17, 2011.

Yesterday, Sorby appeared from the cells in the secure dock at Bradford Crown Court flanked by four security officers.

Sporting a short beard and in a grey sweatshirt, he pleaded guilty to attempting to rape Mrs Pecka and murdering her.

Sorby, formerly of Binns Lane, Lidget Green, Bradford, also admitted a string of burglaries, robbery and theft while on the run, between January 22 and January 27.

Judge Peter Benson remanded him back into custody to be sentenced at a date in the near future.

He told Sorby he would be sentenced to life imprisonment. It was just a question of the minimum term he must be incarcerated for.

Sorby’s barrister, Paul Greaney QC, said his client wanted to be sentenced as soon as possible. Doctors had prepared psychiatric and psychological reports and Mr Greaney handed in a basis of plea to the murder charge. It stated that Sorby intended to cause Mrs Pecka serious injury but not to kill her and that he went to her room to burgle and not to attack anyone.

Prosecution barrister, Adrian Waterman QC, said that Sorby was on licence at the time and there were “very considerable similarities” between the new offences and the earlier attempted rape.

Police mounted a full-scale manhunt almost a year ago when Sorby went on the run from a hostel in Cleckheaton. Officers warned people not to approach Sorby, described as violent and a dangerous sexual predator He was locked up in June, 2008 for attempting to rape a 20-year-old student. He stripped and attempted to rape her but gave up when she bravely fought back.

A spokesman for Handsale Ltd, which took over Rosewood Court last November, said that precautions had been taken to minimise the risk of this happening again. A spokesman said: “I have never experienced anything like this before in 26 years of working within the industry. We feel aggrieved with what the family has gone through.”