Sarah Payne's killer demands new mattress in his cell whingeing that he's got a bad back

A prison source says Roy Whiting has moaned to jail staff that his mattress is too thin and affecting his sleep.

Child killer Roy Whiting has demanded a new mattress in his jail cell, complaining the one he has is not soft enough.

Sarah Payne’s murderer claims he suffers a “bad back” because his bed is not up to his standards.

A prison source said: “Whiting is always whingeing about something – whether it is the food, the temperature in his cell – or now that his mattress is too thin.

“He has asked the staff on the wing if he’s allowed to buy his own mattress, because he says the prison-issue one is too thin.

“He says he can’t get to sleep properly and keeps waking up with aches and pains.”

Whiting, 58, spends most of his time alone in his cell at top-security Wakefield Prison, West Yorks.

As the killer of Sarah, eight, he is said to be a marked man and has been attacked several times.

He wiles away his sentence listening to rock music and making models from matchsticks.

The ex-mechanic is serving 40 years for the West Sussex murder, in 2000.

He avoids the prison food, fearing it has been contaminated by other inmates, and buys his own supplies from the canteen.

In 2002, he was slashed with a razor blade and in 2011, he was stabbed in the eye with a sharpened toilet brush.

Last year, he was battered with a flask by another prisoner.

Inmates can buy items such as duvets from a catalogue, but mattresses are not allowed.