Daniel Morcombe's killer Brett Cowan has been allowed to use a different name in prison after being left permanently disfigured after a bucket of boiling water was tipped over his head.

Cowan legalled changed his name to Shaddo N-unyah Hunter in 2013 and has been given approval to use the name in prison, the Courier Mail reports.

Cowan told detectives investigating the Morecombe murder he had chosen Shaddo because it was his dog's name, while N-unyah stood for 'none of your business'.

The convicted paedophile and murderer has been released back to the prison's general population , not the Wolston Correctional Centre's protective wing, despite a price on his head among prisoners.

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Brett Cowan, Daniel Morcombe's killer, has been thrown back into the general prison population among inmates who want him dead

The attack, allegedly by Adam Paul Davidson last month, came soon after he was moved out of the protective unit.

A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman was unable to comment on individual cases but prisoners born outside Queensland are legally entitled to be addressed under their new identity.

In the past week his name has changed on his prison identification card and within the prison's Integrated Offender Management System, according to the

'It (the name change) could be to take pressure off him. I can't believe the department agreed to change it,' a prison source told the Courier Mail..

Daniel was murdered by the paedophile in 2003 on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland

Cowan was understood to have changed his name in Western Australia, the year before he was convicted of the schoolboy's murder.

The paedophile was released from hospital about a week after fellow prisoner Adam Paul Davidson allegedly left Cowan disfigured by pouring a mop bucket of boiling water over him

Davidson was charged with grevious bodily harm for allegedly pouring a mop bucket of boiling water over Cowan before beating him with it, giving him serious burned to his head, chest and legs.

A former prisoner told the Courier Mail Davidson would be hailed as a hero on the inside because Cowan was so hated inmates had vowed to not let him leave prison alive.

'There's no way he gets out of there alive – every time another bloke gets a chance, they have a crack at him. I hope the public knows that he's not getting an easy ride in there – it is a living hell for him,' he said.

Cowan was allowed to use a different name in the Brisbane maximum security jail's to Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, which he legally change his name to in 2013

He said 'prison rules' forced prisoners to inflict pain on Cowan whenever they got the chance. 'It's kill him or be killed in there – that's how it works,' he said.

'As soon as he was moved out of protection it was on for all money. Whoever it is that knocks him off will be treated like a national hero in there.'

Cowan is serving a life sentence for murdering Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe in 2003.