The chocolate penises sold best. At $10 each (about £7) and with a red-icing scar at the base, they were the souvenir of choice yesterday for visitors drawn to day one of the trial of Lorena Bobbitt.

Ms Bobbitt, a manicurist aged 24, has become a lightning rod for the American gender war and her name will forever be identified with a dismembered member.

The courthouse in Manassas, Virginia, had never seen anything like it — at least not since last November when John Wayne Bobbitt, a former marine aged 26, was in the dock, accused of marital rape. This was said to have provoked his wife to take a 12-inch carving knife to his genitals and, in one swift cut, sever his penis.

The organ was later found and reattached in an unprecedented feat of micro-surgery. Yesterday the couple returned to the court, this time for Lorena to defend herself on a charge of malicious wounding.

As the opening prosecution witness in his estranged wife’s trial, Mr Bobbitt described how he felt a pulling on his groin “and after that she cut it off”.

Lorena Bobbitt is questioned by an attorney during her trial. Photograph: Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma via Getty Images

Ms Bobbitt claims to be the victim of protracted abuse at the hands of her husband.

Lisa Kimbler, Ms Bobbitt’s lawyer, told the court: “What we have is Lorena Bobbitt’s life juxtaposed against John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis. The evidence will show that in her mind it was his penis from which she could not escape, that caused her the most pain, the most fear, the most humiliation.

“At the end of this case you will come to one conclusion: and that is, that a life is more valuable than a penis.”

“Bobbitmania,” sighed one court official, observing the carnival that attends the case.

Street vendors pitched up by the television trucks to sell, besides phallic confectionery, T-shirts with the slogan “Love hurts” or boxer shorts imploring: “Don’t cut me short”.

A Billy Joel parody called The Cutting Game was being played. The composer, Richard Siegel, said: “I was angered by the fact that Lorena was becoming a folk hero.”

Those who had queued since 6am for public gallery seats had strong feelings about the case, which has stirred passions among both sexes.

“She was taken to the point where she couldn’t go on anymore,” said Beverly Battaglia outside Circuit Courtroom One. Like many others in the United States – including the National Organisation of Women – Ms Battaglia considered Ms Bobbitt a rallying point.

Nearby, Evelyn Smith, held court with a huddle of women as she told her own story, no less dramatic than that being played out inside.

“I killed my husband,” she said, explaining how she was the first woman in Maryland to be acquitted of murder for spousal abuse. Ms Smith is now Ms Bobbitt’s supporter and friend.

John Wayne Bobbitt with Veronica Brazil, Tiffany Lords, and Letha Weapons. He went on to appear in a number of pornographic films. Photograph: New York Post Archives/The New York Post via Getty Images

Fewer men had flocked to Manassas, but most of those who had identified with John Bobbitt. Some bought the signed T-shirt whose proceeds go to the severed part telethon established to pay his legal and medical fees.

Others, such as Paul Dodson, were friends there to testify. “Everybody argues – but to cut a man’s penis off, I don’t see no sense in that,” he said.

William Utz took both sides. He said he was praying that the couple might be reconciled.

But most were here for the sheer spectacle. “She’s bigtime now, she’s a celebrity in my country,” said a reporter from Ecuadorean television. Ms Bobbitt came to the US from South America eight years ago.

The Court TV channel is providing live coverage of proceedings. Tellingly, the Comedy Central channel is also producing a daily digest. The trial is expected to be over by the end of the week.

Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty ‘by reason of insanity’, and ordered to undergo a 45-day evaluation period at a state facility in Virginia.

The documentary web series ‘Lorena’, from Amazon Prime, is to be released 15 February 2019.