A pensioner who murdered a woman in her own home has been jailed for life.

Michael Taylor, 72, repeatedly punched and bludgeoned 60-year-old Elizabeth Mackay.

Taylor hit her with a kitchen pot or pan before removing her clothes and fleeing.

Sentencing him at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Michael O'Grady told Taylor: "The sheer callous brutality of the death you inflicted on this defenceless woman, and the terror she must have felt in her final minutes, is quite beyond comprehension."

The judge said he had taken the killer's age into account when ordering him to spend at least 16 years in jail.

Taylor attacked Mrs Muir in her home on Kintail Court, Inverness, in March last year.

The 72-year-old denied murdering her but police found large amounts of his DNA at the scene, along with his fingerprints. It is unclear what caused the attack.

Taylor grabbed Mrs MacKay and repeatedly punched her on the head until she fell to the floor and lost consciousness.

He then repeatedly struck her on the head, arms and hands with an object suspected to be a kitchen pot or pan.

When he was convicted, Mr O'Grady told Taylor: "Murder is always an appalling offence. The brutality of this particular offence is quite staggering.

"No one, I imagine, will ever know why it should be that you attacked this woman in this fashion.

"What is abundantly clear is that she must have suffered a painful and terrifying death at your hands."

Taylor had been freed on three separate bail orders from Inverness Sheriff Court at the time he committed the murder.

The court heard Taylor had abused alcohol and been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Defence counsel Shelagh McCall said: "His mental state is a factor here but it is not sufficient for a plea of diminished responsibility."