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.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, external, X, external and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk, external