The criminal's undergarments are exhibited at a lesser-known museum in England, after its curator forked out an astonishing £2,500 for the briefs.

Nestled along the seafront of Hastings is the True Crime Museum, where visitors can get a disturbingly close look at one half of the duo behind a series of heinous murders.

Joel Griggs, the museum curator, shelled out £2,500 to acquire the underwear once donned by West, marking the museum's tenth anniversary. West, together with her husband Fred, committed the torture and murder of at least 10 women.

Joel secured the peculiar artefacts following their discovery at HMP Bronzefield – Europe's largest female prison and the current abode of Lucy Letby – where West served four years until 2008, reports the Mirror.

Joel disclosed: "A prison worker retrieved them from a laundry basket and later offered them to us for a ridiculous amount of money which we turned down at the time.

"Tiny squares of material from the knickers were then offered for sale on eBay but because the sale contravened eBay's rules and procedures, the items were taken down and the sale never proceeded. On the underwear we have you can see small biro marks which the seller planned to cut around to sell off bit by bit.

"When our tenth anniversary came round I thought it would be worth contacting the prison worker, now retired, again, which I did and that resulted in us buying them for £2,500."

The museum eerily mirrors the infamous 'House of Horrors', where most of West's victims were unearthed in 1994.

Joel's chilling array features the bathtub used by hitman Bruce Childs to chop up six people, acid containers for dissolving flesh, an assortment of makeshift knives, and even triple murderer Louis Lefevre's cranium.

Yet, amongst these macabre relics, West's undergarments seem almost tame in comparison to items from notorious names like the Kray Twins, acquired by Joel's father John during his tenure at the Metropolitan Police.

Joel remarked: "When you look at an exhibit like this, which appears banal at first, I think people then realise the connection with something."

Last year marked three decades since the heinous acts of the married duo came to light, sending shockwaves across the nation.

In 1984, the couple was apprehended at their Cromwell Street home in Gloucester; a grave for dozens they had sexually assaulted and murdered. On February 25, 1994, they were taken into custody on suspicion of murdering their daughter Heather, who hadn't been seen alive since 1987.

The subsequent day, detectives uncovered Heather's remains interred beneath the patio in the backyard.

In a chilling turn of events, two more bodies were unearthed in the garden within two days - those of their previous tenant, 18 year old and pregnant Shirley Ann Robinson, and Alison Chambers.

More gruesome findings ensued, including body parts embedded in the walls of their West Country townhouse, which would later earn the grim moniker 'House of Horrors'.