A manr from Leicestershire has been found guilty of murder following a 'brutal' burglary on an elderly man.
Jason Wilsher launched a savage attack on pensioner Arthur Gumbley after entering his home in 2017.
The 87-year-old was punched in the nose, kicked on the shoulder in the attack and suffered four broken ribs.
He is believed to have been dragged across the carpet, due to the burns on his back.
Wilsher, 20, also skinned Mr Gumbley's hand when he pulled a watch off his wrist.
Wilsher, of Barlestone Road, Bagworth, entered the victim's home in Little Aston, Sutton Coldfield, Staffordshire in November 2017.
Mr Gumbley asked Wilsher why he was in his home, before he was attacked.
Stafford Crown Court then heard that Wilsher and another man attacked the victim and stole a watch and gold and silver jewellery.
Mr Gumbley, who walked with the aid of a walking stick, told detectives he had been watching TV when he heard intruders in his house.
The pensioner died on December 12 2017 as a result of his injuries.
Wilsher was found guilty of murder and of a further charge of conspiracy to commit robbery.
During the burglary, the offenders ransacked all the rooms of the bungalow pulling out drawers and upturning beds.
At the trial, jurors heard how Mr Gumbley was taken to hospital after his daughter phoned him when he managed to reconnect a telephone wire which had been pulled out.
Phone analysis linked Wilsher to a mobile phone 'central to the case', as well as to a blue Mazda car bought for £1,700 for criminal purposes.
The jury convicted Wilsher, who had denied murdering Mr Gumbley, after DNA evidence matching Wilsher's was found on a cupboard drawer at the property.
The second charge for conspiracy to rob related to a different incident which took place in Derbyshire between November 18 and 26, 2017.
In that incident, another elderly man, Dennis Taylor, who lived in the Creswell area, also sustained injuries at the hands of burglars.
The 82-year old told police he had his head repeatedly struck on a hearth, was hit with a baseball bat and had a knife pushed through his lip.
The men also ransacked his house and demanded the code for his safe. They made off with jewellery and £800 in cash.
Extensive forensic work was carried out at Mr Gumbley's bungalow on 188 items and a DNA profile of three people was lifted from the drawer handle in a bedroom.
Jason Wilsher's DNA was one of the profiles and experts concluded that the chances it was not his were 860 million-to-one.
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Detective chief inspector Dan Ison said: "This was a planned and totally unnecessary attack on an 87-year-old man in his own home.
"The injuries sustained by Arthur were brutal and horrific.
"It was months of hard work that identified him (Wilsher) and it is startling that the science of DNA proves effectively Wilsher is the only man in Europe who could've contributed to the sample found at Arthur's home."
Wilsher will be sentenced at the same court on Friday.
