Reject Research: Miniatures/Models
My friend and fellow-Petraburgian, soon-to-be-Doctor Sophie Michell, writes a fabulous regular blog called Friday Murder Club in which she makes use of all the writing and case-analyses that don’t make it into her thesis or publications. This is such a good idea I’ve been meaning to copy it for ages! I can’t possibly meet the standard of Sophie’s work (in quality or volume) but here I’ve borrowed her idea to do something with the search results that I’ve rejected as not being appropriate to the topic I’m working on at the moment: courtroom models.
By ‘models’ I mean material objects that stand in to represent other items or objects or part of them. A model is usually three-dimensional, so a drawing or plan would not be referred to as a ‘model’. Most models, though not all, are made to a given scale, reducing the place or item they purport to represent to a smaller and more transportable scale. They therefore allow for geographical displacement, for example a jury don’t need to visit a crime scene in person if they have an accurate scale model of it to look at. A mill wheel, for example, reduced to a miniature or scale model can be transported to the courtroom with greater ease than the real thing which might weigh several tons or be simply too large to fit through courtroom doors.
What I mean by rejects is the results of my searches for courtroom models that don’t exactly meet the criteria for models I want to write about but are still mildly interesting. I’ve already written about some of the more relevant searches, and one case in particular, in Neale, Alexa (2019), ‘Murder in Miniature: Reconstructing the Crime Scene in the English Courtroom’ in Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity Since 1850, edited by Alison Adam (Springer International Publishing). But my understanding of these objects, their significance and forensic value, has expanded since 2019, and so I’m revisiting this work in order to write an article for (hopeful) publication in an academic journal.
So I went back to the keyword searches, starting with Old Bailey Online where I took advantage of their full text keyword search entering “model”. I then interrogated each result by finding every instance of the word in the Proceedings' transcripts and checking the context. For the research I’m conducting in Autumn-Winter 2025-26, I’m looking for cases where a model was used as a courtroom exhibit to help people visualise verbal or written evidence or witness testimony. Less appropriate search results included examples where a model was stolen or vandalised resulting in a prosecution, and so it was an exhibit of evidence because it was pinched or broken.
The full citation for Old Bailey Online is Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Clive Emsley, Sharon Howard and Jamie McLaughlin, et al., The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674-1913 (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0, Autumn 2023).
For example, John Allen was indicted in 1837 for stealing an item from Thomas Macrow's shop in Back Lane, Shadwell. There was debate in the courtroom as to whether the object should be called a "model brig" or a "toy vessel". Ultimately it didn’t matter because he was found Not guilty.
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) January 1837. Trial of JOHN ALLEN (t18370102-419). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18370102-419?text=model (Last accessed: 14th January 2026).
In another example, the model at the centre of the prosecution was not in court but it got a lot of mention. John Howse was accused of unlawfully damaging a model of 'the Palace of Moorshelabad [sic] at Bengal' in 1855. It was on public display at Hampton Court Palace. Howse had, according to Virtue Thirkettle, the attendant on duty in the withdrawing room at the Palace, been looking at the model when he touched it, breaking a piece of wire off and putting it in his pocket. Thirkettle said the man appeared drunk and when first challenged tried to claim he found the piece of wire 'on the boards' - that it had already broken off when he found it. But he soon sobered up when police were called and he gave his correct address and place of employment and seemed very sorry. He was acquitted.
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) September 1855. Trial of JOHN HOWSE (t18550917-843). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18550917-843?text=model (Last accessed: 14th January 2026).
In another example of a model being mentioned in court but not being representative of a crime scene, John Calleon AKA A. Loy, was accused of murdering his shipmate Sing En, on board the British ship Creedmore, sailing from Manilla to London in 1895. The victim Sing En was the steward, the accused John Calleon was the cook. A verbal argument ended in knife blows while the steward was carving a model ship with a small knife. A larger knife, wielded by the cook, was found to have made a large wound in the stomach of the victim from which he died. Calleon was also found Not guilty.
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) December 1895. Trial of JOHN CALLEON, otherwise A. LOY (48) (t18951209-84). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18951209-84?text=model (Last accessed: 14th January 2026).
I also searched for courtroom models by using Gale Primary Sources to search British Library Newspapers. I’m glad I took the time to find different ways of searching this collection (I’ve previously prefered the commercial website British Newspaper Archive) because it allowed me to search for two words within a certain number of words of one another in the overall text using, for example "model n20 court" (where n is the number of words separating the given terms). I did this based on having read newspaper articles I’ve found in the past that said something like "a model was shown in court" or "At Lewes Court to-day... PC so-and-so produced a model of..." Again, I had to read through the results to make sure the context was right and many weren’t.
One of the results where the context wasn't quite what I was looking for was the following from 1941:
"John Henry Cherry, employed by a firm doing Government work pleaded guilty at a north-western police court to stealing aluminium from the firm over a period of 12 months. He turned the metal into model aeroplanes, yachts, and tanks. The magistrate was shown the model who said they were a "credit" to Cherry but fined him £10, with the warning that future offenders would be more severely dealt with."
'Stole to Make Models', Gloucester Citizen 12 September 1941, p. 2. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers. Gale Document No. GALE|JA3239892489 https://link-gale-com.sussex.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/JA3239892489/BNCN?u=sussex&sid=bookmark-BNCN&pg=2&xid=233b8869 Last accessed 14 January 2026.
Watch this space if you’re interested in reading more about the models that will make it into my article…