By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A construction worker accused of brutally attacking a woman in the bathroom of a Hell's Kitchen bar said he made a mistake and would have to pay for his actions, the New York Post reported.
In an interview from Rikers Island, 30-year-old Mbarek Lafrem told the paper that he had been drinking on an empty stomach and barely remembers that night.
"I wasn’t myself. I was somebody else," he told the Post. "I’ve never acted like that before.
Police said the victim, a 29-year-old pediatric nurse, was found unconscious by her friends sprawled on the floor with her pants half-off and her blood all over the wall inside a women's bathroom stall at Social, a bar and restaurant on W. 48th St. and Eighth Avenue.
The woman was beaten so badly her eye socket and nose were broken, police said.
Lafrem faces charges of attempted murder, assault and attempted rape.
After seeing himself on television in a surveillance video released by the police, Lafrem told the Post, "I wanted to kill myself because she didn't deserve that."
"I wouldn’t want that to happen to my sisters," he added.
Police say Lafrem attacked the woman after she turned down his invitation to dance.
At first, he allegedly tried to blame the attack on his victim, reportedly telling police that he punched the woman and she fell backward after she had come toward him, screaming and pushing him.
When asked what he would now tell the woman, Lefram replied from jail: "I’ll give her my life."
