Sadistic British serial killer Rosemary West is planning to appeal her sentence so she can avoid dying behind bars.

West was convicted of murdering and torturing 10 young women and children at her Gloucester home alongside her husband Fred in 1995, despite proclaiming she was innocent.

Fred West, a monster charged with 12 murders and multiple child rapes, including the killing of the couple's 16-year-old daughter, took his own life before he was put on trial.

Serial killer Rose West was found guilty of murdering 10 young women and children at her home in Gloucester alongside her husband Fred West in 1995 (Supplied)

A judge initially sentenced Rose West to 25 years in prison, however that was later increased to a full life term by then then Home Secretary, Jack Straw.

But according to the Daily Star, West, now aged 66, has told fellow inmates at Low Newton prison, County Durham, that she will lodge an appeal against her sentence in the new year.

"West is convinced that she has become a political prisoner and that no Home Secretary will dare overturn her whole-life tariff because it would be too politically damaging,” the source said.

"Nevertheless, she is determined to try. She has now served 23 years in prison. She maintains that even if she was guilty, she has served her time."

It is also reported that she said: "I'm not going to be the next Myra Hindley – I'm not going to die in prison".

'House of Horrors' serial killer Rose West (left) and 'Moors murderer' Myra Hindley (Supplied)

Child killer Hindley, who is now dead, was the first British woman to be handed a full life sentence, with West being the second.

Various stories have emerged during West's incarceration, making claims about the "middle class" lifestyle she has forged behind bars, where she has reportedly taken a hairdressing course, and cuts the hair of other prisoners.

West also enjoys foot massages in her cell, plays monopoly with other inmates and frequently works out in the gym, The Daily Mail reported last year. The newspaper also claimed West listens to radio serial The Archers and bakes cakes.

INSIDE HOUSE OF HORRORS

The home of serial killer Fred West before it was demolished after his 1995 death while on remand. (AP/AAP)

Her simple daily prison life is in stark contrast to the violent atrocities in the West family home – which became known as 'The House of Horrors' after it emerged nine of their victims, some dismembered, were buried there.

Police discovered the married couple Rosemary would pick up young women from bus stops around Gloucester before they imprisoned and tortured them for a number of days. The pair would then kill their victims and bury the bodies on the property.

In a chilling book, Love As Always, Mum XXX , released earlier this year, the couple's daughter Mae West described her childhood, including the dressing up in clothes of murdered victims .

She described how she and her sister Heather never suspected their father and mother of killing at least 12 women, some of them lodgers at the family home.

In one passage, Mae wrote: "One day, when I was about eight, we discovered a cupboard full of women's clothes and shoes.

"Heather and I used to dress up in them, and Mum didn't seem to mind.

The basement of 25 Cromwell Street - which became known as 'The House of Horrors' for the murder spree carried out by Fred and Rosemary West. (Getty)

"Only much later did I realise that they were the clothes of young women who'd been murdered in the house."

In 1987, when she was just 16, the couple's oldest daughter Heather was killed by her parents and buried in the garden of the family house.

West persuaded his unwitting son Stephen to dig the hole for his sister's grave by falsely telling him it was for a fish pond. He later put paved concrete over the area as part of a backyard extension.

After Fred and Rosemary West murdered Heather, they told Mae her sister had left home to work at a holiday resort, a story they continued to peddle for nearly a decade until they were finally caught out.

Rosemary West, who met her then 27-year-old husband at a bus stop when she was just 15, is believed to have single-handedly killed her eight-year-old step-daughter, Charmaine, in 1971.

West had a troubled childhood and later worked as a prostitute, with her husband Fred often watching on as she performed sexual acts on clients.

Body parts are removed from 25 Cromwell Street in 1994. (Getty)

Rose would frequently get pregnant and was the mother of eight children. Five of her children were fathered by Fred, while the others were fathered by clients she met through her escorting work.

In 1992 Fred West was accused of raping his 13-year-old daughter and Rosemary was arrested over charges of child cruelty. But the case against the couple collapsed when none of their children would testify against them.

The failed case highlighted Heather's mysterious disappearance, and a wider police investigation into the pair was launched.

Rosemary West on her way to court in 1995. She was found guilty for murdering 10 victims. (AP)

In 1994 the couple were arrested and the horrific acts of murder and abuse in the 'House of Horrors' was revealed and shocked the world.

On New Year's Day in 1995, Fred West hanged himself in Birmingham's Winson Green prison where he was being held on remand facing 12 charges of murder.

During her 1995 trial, Rose West told the court how she had been raped twice as a teenager.

She was found guilty on all ten counts by unanimous decision and was jailed for life.

In 1996 Fred West's brother John also hanged himself as he waited to find out if a jury would find him guilty of raping Anne-Marie, a daughter fathered by Fred.

Anne-Marie said her parents had sexually abused her since she was aged eight. During the trial of her uncle John West, she told a jury she was raped by him around 300 times when she was a girl.