Wife Describes Disfiguring of Mate at Trial

A woman sobbed on the witness stand Monday as she told the jury that she cut off her sleeping husband’s penis after he had pinned her to the bed and raped her.

John Wayne Bobbitt, 26, denies the accusation in his trial on a charge of marital sexual assault. His lawyer said that the sex was consensual and that Lorena Bobbitt, 24, leveled a false accusation because she was jealous and dissatisfied with his lovemaking.

Lorena Bobbitt faces her own trial Nov. 29 for the mutilation. Each could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The prosecutor Monday told the jury of nine women and three men that Bobbitt frequently forced his wife to have sex.

Defense attorney Gregory Murphy stressed inconsistencies between her testimony and prior statements about the mutilation.

Lorena Bobbitt appeared to give conflicting statements about whether her husband used his feet or his hands to remove her running shorts and how he held her down.

“I don’t know; I don’t remember,” she said.

Murphy asserted that Lorena Bobbitt became upset after seeing her husband talking with another woman a few days before the mutilation.

The severed organ was reattached and doctors say Bobbitt is recovering well. He has made no public statement since his arrest, but his wife has granted two interviews. They plan to divorce.