The detective who led the investigation which snared serial killer Levi Bellfield has backed calls to strip him of a compensation payout.

Bellfield received £4,500 after he was attacked outside a bathroom inside Wakefield Prison.

Retired detective Colin Sutton tweeted a link last night to a petition calling on Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to overturn the payout.

The former DCI said the compensation was "so not right as to be off the scale, and puts this whole ridiculous business of a duty of care being owed to monsters like Bellfield into a sickening perspective."

Mr Sutton said on his blog: "If you want real proof that the whole system is messed up, look no further than the scale of compensation paid by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to the families of murder victims. 

"For a single relative the maximum is £11,000, and for multiple relatives £5,500 each. 

"So, currently, the parents of Amélie Delagrange, Marsha McDonnell and Millie Dowler - who not only endured the loss of their daughters but the heartbreak of trials, of Bellfield sneering at them and having their lives dissected by his legal team – would each be entitled to just £1,000 more than Bellfield has been given because the warders at Wakefield could not prevent him from getting a few scratches from a sharpened toothbrush."

Bellfield was sentenced to life in prison after a 2008 trial found him guilty of murdering Marsha McDonnell, 19, Amelie Delagrange, 22, and attempting to murder Kate Sheedy.

He was later also found guilty of murdering 13-year-old Hersham schoolgirl Milly Dowler.