HISTORY is littered with tales of men committing crimes, from Dick Turpin to Jack the Ripper.

But newly released files from the National Archives show women in Victorian Birmingham were no strangers to the courts.

The fascinating records, revealed by website Ancestry.co.uk, show women were given no special treatment and faced stiff penalties for offences which in today’s terms would be considered trivial.

Dating from 1853, the parole files detail the offences, sentences and mug shots of the women convicts and the terms of their parole.

Included in the archive are Birmingham trio Ann Knowles, Maria Adams and Fanny Smith.

Ann, also known to the authorities of the day as Mary Russ, was convicted in 1879 at the age of 54 for receiving stolen goods.

An offence which today can carry only a community sentence, she faced seven years of penal servitude and three years of police supervision.

She was released from prison in August 1883 after serving four years.

When passing sentence, the age of defendants also seemed to carry little weight.

At the age of 17, Maria Adams was sentenced to five years penal servitude for larceny and receiving four stolen skirts in 1879.

She was released in 1884 following four-and-a-half years.