Convicts in British psychiatric institutions have asked a supra-national European court for full welfare, pension and other benefits, their lawyers said.

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The criminal inmates at Broadmoor, a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, England and at similar hospitals say they have been discriminated against by being ineligible for the state-funded benefits non-convicts receive, The Daily Telegraph of London reported Saturday.

"Our case is simple. People who are in mental health establishments should be entitled to the same benefits whether or not they have been in prison before," said Peter Mahy, the lawyer representing one of the inmates of the test case the convicts have taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

The case involves four current mental-hospital patients and one former patient, who have been convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, terrorism and child molestation, the newspaper said.

The convicts want the European court to rule they should receive income support of approximately $106 per week, pension payments for those old enough, and damages to make up for what they say they are owed since the law came into effect in 2006, the newspaper said.

If they win their case, taxpayers may a bill of more than $3 million per year, the newspaper said.

"It is to be hoped that when the state tries to do the best possible thing, both for society and to rehabilitate criminals, that these efforts are not crippled by the meddling of the European Court," said Parliament member David Davis, the former shadow home secretary.