An odd job man jailed for life for the murder of a Wolverhampton hotel worker 25 years ago was today facing a second life sentence for killing an 89-year-old widow.

George Johnson attacked Florence Habesch, who he is believed to have done work for, in her home in Rhyl after being released from jail on licence.

Mrs Habesch was found dead by police two days after she died from “severe head injuries”.

Johnson, who lived less than a mile from his victim, fled to Wolverhampton after the February murder before being arrested days later in Leacroft Avenue, Low Hill.

Today it can be revealed that he made headlines in October 1986 as one of two Wolverhampton men who admitted torturing a hotel worker to death using knives and scissors.

The killers made off with just £8 from victim Gerald Homer, who had been forced to strip naked and was stabbed 35 times during an hour-long attack in the city.

Drug addict Johnson, then of Lawn Road, Rough Hills, Wolverhampton, was given a life sentence at Stafford Crown Court with a recommendation that he serve at least 17 years.

Mr Justice Tucker told Johnson and his 17-year-old co-defendant: “It was a brutal and merciless attack.”

As Mr Homer lay dying, Johnson stabbed him in the throat with the scissors.

The men had met their victim at the Lord Raglan pub in Wolverhampton on April 18 that year.

They had been invited back to 38-year-old Mr Homer’s top-floor flat at Grosvenor Court, Hallet Drive, in Merridale, before killing him.

Yesterday, Mr Johnson’s defence counsel Julie Warburton said he had been under the influence of heroin and crack cocaine when he murdered Mrs Habesch.

After pleading guilty to her murder, Johnson was remanded in custody at Caernarfon Crown Court for sentencing.