Porirua woman partly cut off husband's penis 'to stop his cheating'

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of graphic violence and abuse. Helplines can be found at the bottom of the page.

A Porirua woman who partially cut off her husband’s penis as he slept told police she did it to stop him cheating.

The 50-year-old, who has interim name suppression, has pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for the gruesome incident late last year.

A summary of facts at the time of her guilty plea in March has now been provided to the Herald by a judge.

Police say the couple were at home in Porirua when the woman accused her husband of cheating. They had a heated verbal argument, in which he slapped her and grabbed her neck.

She hit his hand away and left the room, returning a short time later and apologising for starting the argument. The pair then had consensual sex.

The man soon went to sleep, but she stayed awake, eventually getting dressed and leaving the room to get a knife from the kitchen drawer.

“The defendant placed the knife down and lay on the bed next to the victim for an unknown amount of time, thinking and saying aloud to the sleeping victim that he would not cheat again or bring sin on to their daughters,” the summary read.

About 3.45am, she picked up the knife and grabbed the man’s penis with her right hand.

“Holding the knife in her left hand, she began slicing at the victim’s penis with all her strength, partially severing the victim’s penis from his torso.”

The man woke up screaming and yelled at the woman to get out. She walked to the porch, where she placed the knife on a set of drawers.

She stayed at the property until police arrived.

The summary said the man suffered “extensive injuries to his genitals”, requiring emergency surgery. No further update on his condition was provided.

The woman, who has previously appeared before the court, told police her husband had been cheating on her for two decades, “and she decided to cut his penis off to stop his cheating”, the summary said.

The Herald attended an earlier appearance in November last year, during which the woman’s children supported her in court.

At the time, her lawyer requested interim name suppression until a mental health report could be done.

Judge John Walker said at that hearing that he was satisfied name suppression should be in place as there was an “arguable case” for it on the grounds of potential mental health issues, as well as hardship to the woman, her children and the complainant if her name were to be published.

The Herald opposed name suppression, but the full hearing on whether her name should remain secret has been rescheduled at least three times. It will now be dealt with at sentencing, which has also been repeatedly rescheduled since the woman’s guilty plea in March. It is now due to be back in court in October.

Despite the Herald’s application for the summary of facts in March, the court released it only recently.

‘It’s a very uncommon injury’

Christchurch reconstructive urologist Giovanni Losco said injuries in which a penis had been removed through some type of trauma were “extremely rare” in New Zealand.

Canterbury urologist Giovanni Losco said such injuries in New Zealand were "extremely rare".

He had come across some cases in which patients had suffered similar injuries in mountain biking accidents or had attempted self-circumcision as adults.

“I’m actually not aware that there’s ever been a case of someone that’s completely chopped off their penis ... it’s a very uncommon injury.”

The urethra needed to be repaired as well as the tubes supplying blood, which create erections. The nerves that were damaged were more difficult to fix.

“If the nerves have been cut, then you basically can’t really repair those. They might self-heal over a very, very long time, like it can take several years, but there’d be a very high chance the patient would be left with a numbness or lack of sensation in the penis,” Losco said.

Surgeon Jim Duthie (right) said urologists would have repaired the urethra and blood vessels, while plastic surgeons tackled the more microscopic nerve work. File photo / John Borren

He noted that cutting off the penis could be a life-threatening injury as it had “very large blood vessels”, which could experience significant bleeding.

Urological surgeon Jim Duthie said it was unusual to perform penis repair surgeries in New Zealand, and complete amputation was most likely in cases of interpersonal violence.

He once treated a patient whose penis suffered a crush injury after being caught in an industrial freezer door, while other patients had damaged theirs in accidents such as motorcycle crashes.

He had a colleague in Germany who treated several patients whose penises had been chopped off as “routine punishment” by Russian gang members, he said.

Urologists would have more involvement with fixing the urethra and blood vessels, while plastic surgeons would be responsible for the “very fine work” of reattaching arteries and nerve sheaths so the patient could have ”a fighting chance” of natural erectile function.

“The structures we’re dealing with are not microscopic. That’s the plastic surgeon’s job. It’s not rocket science for us; it’s well within our toolkit of abilities,” Duthie said.

“It’s not something that any urologist in New Zealand does regularly, but we’ve got the skills from other operations that we can apply.”

He had not operated on anyone whose penis had been cut off, but had repaired fractures before. The Porirua incident was unusual enough that “word got around” in the surgical community when it happened, he said.

The case echoes the infamous 1993 story of Lorena Bobbitt, an American woman who cut off the penis of her then-husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, with a kitchen knife.

Lorena Bobbitt made headlines around the world when she cut off her husband's penis. Photo / Amazon Prime Video

She later drove around Virginia and threw the penis out of her car window. Police found it, and it was successfully reattached.

John Bobbitt would eventually go on US TV show Scandal Made Me Famous to speak about the incident.

“I looked down, and there was blood everywhere,” he said. “It was a devastating thing to happen to you suddenly. Suicide seemed like the only answer.”

He went on to do multiple interviews about the incident, as well as starring in some popular adult films.

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Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 13 years.