'My wife murdered me the night she cut off my penis': Husband woke up to find his wife slashing him with a ten-inch knife… then she threw it in the garbage disposal

• Catherine Kieu  then turned disposal chute on, Orange County court heard
• Kieu said to be angry with her husband for cheating and wanting divorce
• Penis couldn't be reattached but husband had surgery so he could urinate
• If convicted by mostly female jury, Kieu, 50, could be jailed for life

Catherine Kieu, pictured, is accused of drugging her husband, tying him up, and cutting off his penis with a knife

Catherine Kieu sits next to her attorney,deputy public defender Frank Bittar, before opening statements the day before yesterday

A man has told a court how his wife drugged him before cutting off his penis with one slash of a knife and throwing it in the garbage disposal.

The 60-year-old man, whose penis was too mangled to reattached but who had surgery so he could urinate, told the court: 'She murdered me that night.'

His ex-wife, Catherine Kieu, 50, is accused of severing his penis because she was angry that he had started seeing a former lover and wanted a divorce.

On the first day of the trial yesterday, deputy district attorney John Christl said that Kieu had bugged her house in a bid to catch her husband cheating on her with an old flame.

The bugs found nothing, although they did record the attack Kieu is said to have committed on her 60-year-old husband.

Mr Christl said Kieu laced her husband's tofu soup with insomnia drug Zolpidem on the evening of July 11, 2011, while they were both at their marital home in Garden Grove, southeast of Los Angeles.

He said audio footage picked up the husband complimenting her on the soup, before going to bed, early, at 8.10pm.

Kieu is then alleged to have waited until he was asleep before tying him to the bed and cutting off his penis with a ten-inch kitchen knife.

The husband,who is known only by his first name in court, said he remembered waking up tied to the bed.

Mr Christl said: 'When he woke, she told him "You deserve it" three times, and then slices off his penis with one motion of the knife', reported news.com.au.

'She then walks into the kitchen, takes the severed penis, and puts it into the garbage disposal.'  He told the court that after she put the penis in the garbage disposal, she then turned it on, before calling 911.

'All of a sudden I felt a very sharp pain,' the husband said. 'I will never have a sex life again.'

He added: 'My mental state is improving, but it may never be what it was before,' he said.

In his opening statement, Deputy Public Defender Frank Bittar told jurors that Kieu’s traumatic childhood in war-torn Vietnam caused mental illness that should prevent her from conviction on the charges of aggravated mayhem and torture.

He also said the husband was over-sexual, using erectile dysfunction drugs and forcing his wife into sexual positions that hurt.

'You're going to learn that in Catherine's mind, she severed his penis because she wanted him to stop hurting her with his penis,' he added.

Mr Bittar said Kieu met the victim at a gym, and after they married he subjected her to sexual and verbal abuse.

He said: 'In Catherine's mind, she severed his penis because she wanted him to stop hurting her with his penis.'

Mr Bittar said the husband filed for divorce while they continued to live together in his Garden Grove home.

Prosecutors played audio in court that was captured by a voice-activated recorder Kieu had hidden in the bedroom, according to Christl.

Kieu is heard yelling 'You deserve it' three times before the attack on the recording.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.

Story By HARRIET ARKELL