Obiter pleads guilty to prurience in the first degree for hurrying along to a new Museum of London exhibition featuring storied props from some of our most notorious crimes.

For the first time, the public can view objects from the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum, which was originally established for teaching purposes in the mid-1870s.

Here is the pistol used in the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840 (pictured); here is the folding ladder belonging to cat burglar and murderer Charles Peace; over in the corner is the spade with which Dr Crippen buried his murdered wife.

More recent evidence includes champagne and ketchup bottles with the fingerprints of members of the Great Train Robbery gang; the replica millennium star diamond used as part of ‘Operation Magician’ to foil the Millennium Dome robbery in 2000; and a Russian-made anti-tank rocket launcher that fired a missile into the MI6 building.

There are also courtroom sketches, including those drawn by artist William Harley at the 1907 trial of Robert Wood for the sensational ‘Camden Town murder’.

One scene depicts ‘Mr Marshall Hall KC’ addressing the jury with the words: ‘I demand a verdict of not guilty. Not merely ask it. I demand it.’ Wood was acquitted.

The Crime Museum Uncovered runs until 10 April.

Topics