Recent games have been littered with goalkeeping mistakes and this latest encounter was no exception as the unfortunate Sorensen, who has been guilty of some poor performances this season, agonisingly allowed a 52nd minute shot from Heskey to slither through his hands.
Birmingham capitalised upon another gift when a loose ball bounced off Martin Laursen into the path of substitute Julian Gray to record the second goal in the 89th minute.
The result was that Birmingham maintained their unbeaten record against Villa in the Premiership and in the process guaranteed their top-flight status with only their third win in the last ten matches.
Importantly on the local scene this is the sixth game in which Birmingham have emerged unbeaten and the fourth time they have won.
It was a well merited success as Villa, until they found themselves in arrears, rarely created any attacking danger to Birmingham's composed defence.
The major difference between the two teams was the impact of Heskey, who was always a major danger to the Villa defence.
Villa's team formation, however, gave an early indication of their intentions with Luke Moore their only recognised striker.
It was therefore hardly a surprise as Birmingham dominated the early exchanges with Heskey giving Villa skipper, Olof Mellberg a torrid time.
With Villa confined to defence it allowed Birmingham tremendous attacking scope and they created some good opportunities without being able to find the finishing touch.
Local boy Darren Carter, recalled after a hamstring injury, was accorded the best opportunities early in the game.
On the first occasion he whipped a low left-foot long-range shot just wide of the post and later he collected a pass from Stan Lazaridis, but his weak shot went straight into the arms of Sorensen.
In sharp contrast Villa's attack was non-existent which was hardly a great surprise as they relied solely upon the young, inexperienced Moore. As a result Villa failed dismally to mount any dangerous attacks.
These days Villa rely heavily upon the goalscoring ability of Nobby Solano and as all his eight goals this season have been scored at Villa Park the prospects of him making an impact were not very bright.
But in the 40th minute a protracted free-kick incident, which resulted in Damien Johnson being booked and the kick being moved ten yards closer to Birmingham's goal, saw Solano curl in his shot which was finger-tipped on to the post by Maik Taylor and back into play.
The turning point occurred seven minutes into the second half when the unfortunate Sorensen failed to hold a Heskey shot which slithered through his hands and agonisingly rolled along the line and into the net.
Heskey, to his credit, took full advantage of a Laursen headed pass to Mellberg and gained possession to hammer his cross shot into the net via the body of Sorensen.
Villa's goalkeeper did not allow the incident to upset him as he demonstrated with a diving save a few minutes later to keep out an effort from a largely restrained Walter Pandiani.
Following the opening goal the game came alive with Lazaridis coming in for some heavy treatment from Mathieu Berson and Laursen, who both collected yellow cards.
Villa's response was to send on both Darius Vassell and Carlton Cole in an attempt to inject some attacking power which had previously been lacking.
Villa, who must dread crossing the Aston Expressway to play their local rivals, suffered another setback when Laursen was unable to prevent the ball hitting him and bouncing into the path of Gray to score a simple second goal a minute before the end of the game.