ROBERTO Esquivel Cabrera has just set a world record for having the longest penis.

The 52-year-old Mexican measured in at a whopping 18.9 inches (48.2cm), with a tip circumference of 10 inches (25cm), at certification by World Record Academy officials yesterday.

Mr Cabrera had been hoping for recognition by Guinness World Records but had to settle for the less famous certifier after Guinness confirmed it had no category for penis size.

The World Record Academy stepped in after Mr Cabrera shared his story with a local journalist in an interview that was picked up by the world press over the weekend.

He told how his massive member had ruined his life, preventing him from having a relationship and even getting a job.

“Look where it is, it goes far below the knees,” Mr Cabrera said.

“I cannot do anything, I cannot work, and I am disabled so I want authorities to declare me as a disabled person and give me support.”

Women were too frightened to have sex with him, so he had never had a long-term girlfriend, let alone a wife.

In 2011 Mr Cabrera was deported from US to Saltillo in the north-eastern Mexican state of Coahuila, where he lives alone in a room given to him by his brothers. He survives on social assistance and scavenges for food and materials on waste dumps. He has no friends and says people “shun” him wherever he goes.

Before his record was made official, Mr Cabrera had a medical examination and X-ray of his phallus to support his application for disability. Doctors at a medical institution in Saltillo have confirmed the scan is genuine, The Mirror reported.

Some experts have suggested Mr Cabrera consider a shaft reduction operation but it is not clear what his thoughts are on the subject.

The previous record holder for penis length was an American called Johan Falcon, whose 13.38 inch manhood (34cm) was dwarfed by Mr Cabrera’s.

Over the past couple of days, journalists have compared the size of the Mexican’s penis to that of a horse and a rounders’ bat. But the most helpful visual has come from the Daily Star, who pointed out that the smallest man ever documented was just two inches taller — or longer — than Mr Cabrera’s unfortunate appendage.

Mr Cabrera’s story and struggle for help is to be published in a book called El Sordido Pudor, which translates as “Sordid Shyness”.