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A transgender killer is set to undergo a sex change on the NHS - costing the taxpayer £20,000 and leaving her victim's family furious.

Paris Green, 26, will become the first prisoner in Scotland to have gender reassignment surgery.

Born Peter Laing, she was sentenced to life for sexually assaulting and battering Robert Shankland, 45, to death with two accompliaces.

Green will have the operation after being transported from her cell at HMP Edinburgh to a hospital in England under constant guard, the Daily Record reports.

But Mr Shankland's family say she should not be getting the operation on the NHS because "it’s not lifesaving treatment".

(Image: Spindrift Photo Agency)

The surgery will cost an estimated £20,000.

From the women's wing of the prison, Green wrote: “I am having the op, and pretty soon. The letter has went out [sic] to the surgeon asking him to take on my case.”

Mr Shankland’s sister, Pauline Bell, 46, slammed the move.

She said: “She should not be getting the operation on the NHS. It’s not lifesaving treatment. She took ­somebody’s life away and destroyed a family.”

(Image: PA)

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “We cannot discuss ­individual cases but if a request is made by the NHS for surgery for one of the prisoners they are treating, we would not and could not stand in the way.”

Mr Shankland was murdered in March 2013 when Green and pals Kevin McDonagh and Dean Smith invited him to a party in Green’s flat in Glenrothes, Fife.

The trio then tied him up and tortured him for hours, beating him so badly they left a footprint on his neck. They also sexually assaulted him with a rolling pin.

He died as a result of either suffocation or blunt force injuries.

The attack was described by a judge as “utterly depraved”.

The trio were found guilty of murdering Mr Shankland and sentenced to life with a minimum of 18 years.