Warning: This article contains discussions of domestic violence and rape which some readers may find distressing.
In 1993, a man called John Bobbitt woke up to discover that his wife Lorena had cut off his penis while he was sleeping.
They'd met in 1988 and married the following year but the relationship didn't turn out well at all as Lorena claimed that within a month of marriage her husband hit her, while John accused her of being violent in return.
He claimed she was 'jealous and possessive' of him and would punch him if she was upset, with both of them being charged with assault and battery at one point.
Advert
She accused him of rape and claimed he was 'excited by violent sex', which he denied, and Lorena alleged that on 22 June 1993 she was woken up by her husband forcing himself on her.
John claims she was the one who made advances on him and that he fell into a 'deep sleep', he would later be arrested on charges of marital sexual assault and acquitted.
According to Lorena, she then went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and brought a knife back into the bedroom with her, slicing off his penis.
Strangely enough his first thought when he woke up wasn't 'ahhh, someone's chopped off my dingle' as you might expect, but instead his mind went to a movie reference.
Advert
Telling People he 'understands' why his wife chopped off his penis, Bobbitt explained that his first thought was that he'd become one of the victims in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
"Freddy Krueger and Jason were really big back then," John explained, "So immediately, I thought Freddy Krueger did it. I was just one of his victims in deep sleep."
Describing it as 'waking up into a nightmare', John said he then thought 'holy s**t, it's gone and I'm bleeding'.
Despite Lorena taking John's penis with her as she left the house and throwing it out of her car window, it was successfully attached thanks to nine hours of surgery.
Advert
John had a brief stint as a porn actor afterwards as he reckoned it 'seemed like the best way to show my penis worked'.
Lorena was arrested and charged with malicious wounding, to which she pleaded not guilty, and later said that she didn't regret it as 'to me, how could you regret something that you don’t have control of?'
According to John he says they haven't spoken in years, which is understandable, but claimed he 'secretly' still messaged her mum on Facebook.
When asked if he forgave her for cutting off his penis, he said: "I understand why she did it. I broke her heart. Her heart broke, devastated."
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247, available 24/7, or via live chat, available 10am-10pm, Monday to Friday.
Joe Harker