A Lithuanian man today admitted killing a Buddhist widow in her £2million woodland home before burning her body in the garden.

Albertina Choules, 81, was found dead outside her isolated home in the rolling Buckinghamshire countryside in July last year after desperately calling the police to report an intruder.

The call handler could hear the chilling voice of a man in the background before the line went dead.

Tautvydas Narbutas, 24, today admitted hitting Mrs Choules over the head with a blunt instrument before dragging her outside and setting her body alight.

The prosecution accepted a guilty plea to manslaughter not murder because he has a 'psychotic disorder' that makes him less responsible for his actions. 

Narbutas also admitted affray for his 'abnormal' behaviour at the scene of the crime where he attacked two Thames Valley Police officers with a machete. Two charges of attempted grievous bodily harm were dropped. Psychiatrists for the Crown Prosecution Service and Narbutas' defence team agreed that his responsibility for the gruesome crime was 'severely diminished'.

Narbutas, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, today appeared at Reading Crown Courtcourt via video link from HMP Woodhill.

He wore a red, prison-issued jumper and only spoke only to enter his pleas. Through a Lithuanian translator he said: 'Not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.'

Prosecutor Alan Blake said today: 'We've carefully reviewed all the evidence and in particular the medical evidence.

'The mental abnormality is identified as arising from a psychotic disorder.

'With that consensus among the medical experts and the evidence of abnormal behaviour at the scene when the defendant was arrested we do not consider there is a realist prospect the jury would reject that medical evidence.

'Accordingly, we consider it proper to accept the plea that has been offered.'

The prosecution team met Mrs Choules' family on Monday before agreeing to accept the pleas he revealed.

Known fondly as 'Tina in the woods', she had spent decades transforming her Marlow gardens into a sculpture park complete with religious shrines. 

Fit and active, Mrs Choules grew all her own vegetables and even used a chainsaw to chop her own wood despite her advancing age. She had no electricity in her isolated home and is believed to have used gas lanterns. Villagers were free to visit her estate as part of a Buddhist trail she created with her husband Michael, a fellow Buddhist convert, who died in 2004 after battling cancer.

A statement from her family after her death said: 'Tina was incredibly special, as was her simple, self-sufficient way of life with no electricity, television or washing machine.

'She never liked to sit still and worked tirelessly to maintain her beautiful garden and produce all year round.

'Even in her old age she would chop trees, dig up flowerbeds and wrestle with her lovely dog, Georgie.

'She was completely selfless in giving away her fantastic fruit and vegetables to friends and family as well as sharing her wonderful Buddhist Stupas (that she built with her own hands) with those that chose to walk in the woodland.