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Notorious serial killer Rose West has scooped first prize in a prison bake-off competition.

West, 64, who was convicted of ten murders in 1995, came up trumps when inmates in F-Wing at HMP Prison Low Newton voted for her Victoria sponge.

West, who is serving a life sentence, loves to bake and uses her culinary skills to impress fellow lags.

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West along with her husband Fred raped and murdered their daughter Heather and buried her under their patio – then did the same to nine others

A source told The Daily Star: ‘West uses her cooking skills to win people over.

‘There are some very violent women on the wing and a lot of them are very aggressive towards West because of her crimes.

‘But she tends to defuse situations by offering other prisoners cakes and biscuits.’

West along with her husband Fred raped and murdered their daughter Heather and buried her under their patio – then did the same to nine others.

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West, 64, who was convicted of ten murders in 1995, came up trumps when inmates in F-Wing at HMP Prison Low Newton voted for her Victoria sponge

Despite being a sadistic serial killer, West, who is serving a life sentence for her despicable crimes, is allowed to use knives while under staff supervision.

West suffers from breathlessness and high blood pressure and has been warned that she must diet or face developing type 2 diabetes or premature death after her weight ballooned to 18 stone.

Sources said that her weight problems began to spiral out of control when it became clear that she would never see freedom.

Although she is described by many within the system as a ‘model prisoner’, West has struggled to accept her fate.

West, 64,loves to bake and uses her culinary skills to impress fellow lags

A prison officer at Durham’s Low Newton jail claims that morale among staff is in crisis at the prison.

A source said: ‘We have high-profile prisoners in Low Newton like Rose West who need attention.

‘She has been attacked in the past and irrespective of her crimes we have a duty of care to protect her.

‘But we are short of staff, morale is low and there is no confidence in prison managers.

‘Attacks against staff happen every week and we feel as though we are not properly protected.’

Last month MailOnline reported that West said she had ‘found a new life in God’ and even attended prison chapel services every Sunday.

She along with her husband Fred raped and murdered their daughter Heather and buried her under their patio – then did the same to nine others.

Fred killed himself in 1995 while awaiting trial for 12 murders and West was convicted of 10 the same year and jailed for life.

THE MANY VICTIMS OF SERIAL KILLERS FRED AND ROSE WEST

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Tragic: Lucy Partington, the cousin of novelist Martin Amis, went missing in December 1973

Although Fred West was convicted of killing 12 women and Rose 10, the pair are thought to have killed up to 20 more.

One victim who was almost certainly killed by West was his former girlfriend Anne McFall who like the others, was found in a shallow grave with body parts missing. West denied it.

Confirmed victims include:

Charmaine West, eight: Fred West’s stepdaughter from his first marriage, Charmaine was murdered by Rose in 1971 while Fred was in prison.

Rena Costello, 27: Charmaine’s mother Rena, Fred’s first wife, was murdered when she arrived to pick up her daughter Charmaine in August 1971. With Charmaine already dead, it is thought Fred killed her to avoid an investigation.

Lynda Gough, 20: Miss Gough was a lodger in the West’s home and was killed in April 1973. Rose told her mother she had moved to Weston-super-Mare.

Carol Ann Cooper, 15: The teenager disappeared while walking home from the cinema to her Worcester children’s home in November 1973. Her remains were found buried in the Wests’ garden.

Lucy Partington, 21: After spending Christmas with her family in Cheltenham, Miss Partington disappeared after leaving to catch a bus. The student was the cousin of novelist Martin Amis and the sister of author Marian Partington.

Therese Siegenthaler, 22: The South London student was killed in April 1974 after disappearing while attempting to hitch-hike to Ireland.

Shirley Hubbard, 15: One of the Wests’ youngest victims, she disappeared on her way home from college in Droitwich. When her body was discovered, her head was completely covered in tape with a rubber tube placed in her mouth to allow her to breathe.

Juanita Mott, 18: Miss Mott, a former lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, was living in Newent when she vanished.

Shirley Robinson, 19: Another lodger, Miss Robinson was killed in 1978 after becoming pregnant with West’s child.

Alison Chambers, 17: The teenager disappeared in August 1979 and her remains were later found beneath the patio at 25, Cromwell Street.

Heather West, 17: Repeatedly raped by her father, Heather complained to friends about the abuse and was murdered by her parents in a bid to keep her quiet.

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Tina Hutchence has candidly spoken about her family’s heartache in losing touch with her half-brother’s daughter.

Speaking to Nine Honey on Saturday, the 70-year-old revealed the haunting turn of events that saw the late INXS rocker Michael Hutchence and her niece Tiger Lily ‘ripped’ from her almost instantly.

‘She’s a piece of him. But that was denied to us,’ Tina claimed.

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‘Michael and Tiger Lily were ripped from us in an instant’: Tina Hutchence (pictured) reveals Paula Yates banned her from making contact with the late INXS rocker’s daughter after his death and Bob Geldof demanded custody

Tina alleged that she was deprived from seeing Tiger, now 22 years old, by her mother Paula Yates since the summer before Michael’s tragic death.

‘When I asked about seeing her I was told that Paula had changed her number, that we weren’t allowed to contact her,’ she devastatingly recalled.

After Paula died from a heroin overdose in 2000, Tina’s family endured another gruelling hardship when they lost custody of Tiger to Bob Geldof.

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Loss of a half-brother and no contact with niece: Speaking to Nine Honey on Saturday, Tina (right) revealed the haunting turn of events that saw the late INXS rocker Michael Hutchence (left) and her niece Tiger Lily ‘ripped’ from her almost instantly

Bob, who was Paula’s ex-husband, allowed Tina to see her then four-year-old niece – whom she had not spent time with since Michael’s funeral in November, 1997.

Reflecting upon the poignant realisation that Tiger had no idea who she was, Tina confessed her desire to seek custody of the little orphaned girl.

Tina said Bob responded with: ‘I don’t think so, love. She’s staying with me.’

She has since only seen Tiger twice and has completely lost touch with her today.

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Banned: Tina explained that she was deprived from seeing Tiger (pictured here), now 22 years old, by her mother Paula Yates since the summer before Michael’s tragic death

Tina’s half-brother Michael was found dead in a hotel room at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sydney’s Double Bay in 1997 at the age of 37.

NSW State Coroner Derrick Hand, who presided over the inquest into his death, previously confirmed he died from suffocation caused by hanging.

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‘When I asked about seeing her I was told that Paula had changed her number, that we weren’t allowed to contact her,’ Tina devastatingly recalled. Pictured Paula (right) with baby Tiger and Michael (left)

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Brutal: Tina confessed her desire to seek custody of the little orphaned girl when she recalled Bob’s  response: ‘I don’t think so, love. She’s staying with me.’ Pictured: Peaches Geldof, Pixie Geldof, Tiger Lily Geldof, Jeanne Marine and Bob Geldof

Late last year, Tina came forward claiming she believed Michael’s death was a tragic choice made in the heat of the moment.

Speaking to WHO magazine, Tina said: ‘I firmly believe Michael’s death was a split-second decision made out of anger and frustration.’

She added: ‘I do believe the coroner Derek Hand’s findings, though it is a lot more complex than this.’

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‘I firmly believe Michael’s death was a split-second decision made out of anger and frustration,’ Tina previously told Who Magazine about the death of her half-brother Michael

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Madeleine McCann’s father insisted she is still alive and he will give her a cuddle when they are reunited in a tearful interview yesterday.

Gerry McCann revealed he has ‘painful’ dreams about his little girl who was just three years old when she disappeared in 2007 during a family holiday in Portugal.

The surgeon, 50, said it was ‘just a feeling’ and an ‘instinctive reaction’ that he will see his daughter again.

‘I just want to hug her and hold her and cry… a lot,’ he sobbed.

Mr McCann also revealed that he and wife Kate, who did not take part in the interview, also had to cope with the guilt of having left Maddie.

‘I couldn’t get the darkest thoughts out of my mind. We felt guilt that we were responsible for allowing someone to steal our daughter,’ he said.

‘We gave someone an opportunity. We let her down. I was sure she had been abducted.’

In an emotional BBC Radio 4 interview the eminent cardiologist told of his own battle with mental health, being ‘completely distraught and feeling helpless’ in the early days of his daughter’s disapearance and the ‘shock, horror, panic and terror’ as he felt trapped in the darkest tunnel.

At times during the rare and powerful broadcast Mr McCann openly wept – the first time he has publically shown emotion since Maddie was snatched during a family holiday nearly eleven and a half years ago which turned his life into ‘like something out of a horror movie.’

The show was broadcast a day before Scotland Yard’s funding for the Maddie hunt is due to run out.

Whilst Met Police have requested more money from the Home Office to keep their search going it has not yet been approved.

Reliving the trauma of the night his daughter went missing and the following months as he and Kate fell under suspicion he told how they had been ‘paddling furiously above the water trying to keep afloat but so close to drowning.’ adding: ‘We were just crumbling.’

And even today Mr McCann still suffers and is haunted by nightmares although he admits ‘people help you and time makes the pain ease’.

He told in the hour-long drama ‘Pearl: Two Fathers Two Daughters’ of recent dreams about Maddie – he has no idea is she is dead or alive – revealing: ‘They are not as frequent but they are painful when it happens. I thought about it early on, if Madeleine was still, is still alive.’

He started sobbing: ‘I just want to hug her, to hold her to cry – a lot. Never a day goes by when I don’t think of Madeleine. She was absolutely amazing and we had such an incredibly special relationship.’

He described the early days after Maddie was snatched from the family apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz as ‘like something out of a horror movie – like a nightmare’ and he said the lack of information from the Portuguese police was ‘almost paralysing.’

Madeleine McCann disappearance: A timeline of the key events

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The heart doctor, who works at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, confessed he found it difficult as a man to seek professional help to ease his anguish, saying: ‘I didn’t think I would be the sort of person who would need counselling or respond to it.’

It was his idea to go on holiday to The Algarve with friends and he recalled that ill fated night – May 3, 2007 – when Maddie disappeared, sparking the world’s biggest ever missing child mysteries.

He said: ‘Kate came running back and raised alarm bells, saying ‘Madeleine’s missing, she’s gone’. I said: ‘She can’t be gone’. I was completely in shock.’

He scoured the apartment where Maddie had been left sleeping with her younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie ‘looking in the bedroom, checking everywhere even under the sink in the cupboards. It was disbelief, shock, horror and then the panic and terror.’

After searching the holiday complex and outside in the streets the broken couple returned to their room ‘absolutely distraught.’

Mr McCann said: ‘There was an overwhelming feeling of pain and helplessness. Every moment we couldn’t find her it got worse and I remember being slumped on the floor.

‘I called some of my family members and said “Pray for her”. I wanted to believe there was a God.

‘We were at the centre of a ripple of a tidal wave that was crashing down on all our family and friends as they heard the news.’

He told of his frustration with the Portuguese Police that ‘nothing was happening’ to find Maddie, who he feared could have been smuggled out of the country by car or boat.

He said: ‘It was devastating and no one was in control or giving us advise. I was expecting a Metropolitan type response.

‘We couldn’t eat or sleep, it was like a sickness with the fear and anxiety manifesting in physical symptoms, and we just cried.’

In their darkest hours over the years Maddie’s parents have turned to counsellors.

On the night she vanished one grief expert told the couple who were blaming themselves: ‘You sound like model parents’.

Mr McCann, again sobbing, told the programme: ‘At the time that was something we really needed to hear.’

Mr McCann also started questioning his faith, saying: ‘I found it hard with all those millions and millions of prayers and it hasn’t had a better outcome. I find it very difficult to accept.’

And when the police spotlight fell on them and they became arguidos – suspects – in their daughter’s disappearance, he said they were ‘ripped.’

He added: ‘It was impossible and unbearable, the whole journey was like something out of a horror movie, like a nightmare.

‘I completely lost faith in the Portuguese police and there was an orchestrated media campaign that made us guilty and had a huge impact on us. We were struggling so much it was hard to support each other.

‘It was touch and go and there were days when you felt you were going under.’

At times Mr McCann said he felt he could see a light at the end of the tunnel which gave him a glimmer of hope amidst the despair – saying: ‘It would make the goal of finding Madeleine more achievable.’

He said the twins helped keep them going and the ‘enormous support’ from family, friends and members of public and Scotland Yard’s investigation Operation Grange launched in May 2011 gave them ‘a new normality.’

He clings onto a glimmer of hope Maddie – who would now be 15 – could still be alive.

Crying once more, he said: ‘My instinctive reaction is I feel we will be reunited at some point. I don’t wish her dead. It’s a terrible thing to say and it sounds cold but I can’t live this way for 15 more years, drained and exhausted.

‘You have your crutches, whether it be people or distractions, but you can’t live without an ending n a day to day basis, it completely drains you.’

He often wonders what life would be like with his eldest child around but insists: ‘We have to focus on being a family of four not a family of five.’

He said: ‘I looks at Amelie and how she has developed and can’t help think what would Madeleine look like and be doing. Anniversaries and birthdays are very difficult and occasions like the days she should have gone to school.’

Mr McCann recalled fond memories of Maddie, the longed for child he and Kate had through IVF treatment.

As a baby suffering from colic he used to lay her on his chest and rub her back.

He said: ‘She used to pull the hairs on my chest and it was really painful but it seemed to ease her burden. I formed a really strong bond with her at a very young age.’

They would often watch her favourite TV programme together Dr Who starring David Tennant ‘sitting down in their little snug’ and at other times he would observe her running around the garden with her brother and sister or going swimming.

He revealed her room at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, was ‘pretty much the same’ with the bedding and stars on the ceiling and a wardrobe full of birthday and Christmas presents.

But he found it difficult having other people visiting it because it was like ‘defiling Madeleine.’

But he stated: ‘You adapt to your situation, it is human nature. We are incredibly resilient and people help you and time makes the pain ease.

‘But the grief and loss is always there. I don’t know how we have coped.’