the language: to Bobbittise. The media leapt into a new era of broadcast freedom: 'penis' became a word for the front pages and unblushing stories to camera.

Now Lorena is being celebrated for 'reinventing' herself as a happy mother of a two-year-old girl with a 'fiancé' of 14 years standing, as a hairdresser dabbling in estate

agency on the side, and, best of all, as the founder of a new charity called Lorena's Red Wagon, devoted to helping abused women.

In that lies the legend for the barrio. Lorena's success comes from an instinctive understanding of the Gringo mind. The spitfire Latina saw that the best way out of the mess was to play the victim. Even now, the Bobbitt case is credited with taking the national debate on marital rape and domestic violence to a new level.

On the fatal night, Bobbitt (pictured left in 1994) rolled