IN the ’90s Lorena Bobbitt made worldwide headlines when she cut off her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis with a knife.
Her story, and similar cases that followed, are being told in the ITV documentary, I Cut off His Penis: The Truth Behind The Headlines. 
Lorena Bobbit made worldwide headlines when she cut off her husband John’s penis with a knife
Born on October 31, 1970, Lorena Bobbitt is infamously known for cutting off her husband John’s penis.
The pair married on June 18, 1989, but four years later their lives would change forever.
Lorena chopped off John‘s genitals with a kitchen knife as he slept on June 23, 1993.
Realising what she had done she drove away in her car with the severed appendage before throwing it into a field.
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Lorena called 911 and told the operator what she had done.
Following a police search for his manhood, John‘s penis was reattached in an operation which took nine and a half hours.
The aftermath
Lorena was arrested on the night of the attack and went on trial in 1994.
During the court case she said she only attacked her husband following prolonged abuse from him during the four years they had been married.
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Witnesses testified that they had seen bruises on her arms and neck and that she called emergency services repeatedly.
Lorena alleged that on the night of the attack he returned home drunk and raped her – although he was never found guilty of this.
She told the court she went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, spotted the kitchen knife then became overwhelmed with emotion.
The jury found Lorena not guilty due to temporary insanity causing an irresistible impulse to sexually wound.
She was freed after a 38-day psychiatric hospital evaluation.
The following year the pair divorced after six years of marriage.
Lorena now goes by her maiden name, Gallo
Lorena’s life now
Lorena kept a lower profile following the court case and reverted to her maiden name of Lorena Gallo.
She remarried and went onto have a daughter and founded Lorena’s Red Wagon, a non-profit organisation that helps victims of domestic violence.
She appeared on the Steve Harvey show to share her recollection of that fateful evening.
“I found myself in the street with a penis in one hand and the knife in the other,” she told Harvey.
“So yeah, that happens … I’m here to tell you and to tell everyone what happens when a woman gets abused by a man.”
In an interview in 2009 with Oprah, she said if she could take anything back, she would never have married John.
Lorena’s story being told
ITV are unleashing their documentary I Cut off His Penis: The Truth Behind The Headlines on October 15, 2024 at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.
The synopsis reads: “When Lorena Bobbitt went on trial for chopping off her husband’s penis in 1993, the world’s media was gripped and the Bobbitts’ story became the ultimate cautionary gender tale.
“But Lorena wasn’t the first – or the last – woman to commit the act of “penicide”.
“Now, this revelatory documentary explores other cases that have happened around the world.
“Travelling to the USA, UK and Thailand, we go beyond the tabloid headlines to hear the extraordinary personal testimony of both women and men who have witnessed and felt the impact of this act.
“From the women who committed the act, to the men who were cut, to the surgeons who re-attached the penises, we ask why this very specific act of violence is committed.”
