Mbarek Lafrem of Norwood, Pa. is escorted by officials Friday,...

Mbarek Lafrem of Norwood, Pa. is escorted by officials Friday, March 12, 2010 after being charged with brutally beating a woman in a New York City bar. Credit: AP

NEW YORK (AP) — A Pennsylvania man accused of beating a woman unconscious in a Manhattan bar said in a pair of jailhouse interviews that he “wasn’t himself” during the attack.

Mbarek Lafrem spoke to reporters for the New York Daily News and the New York Post on Friday at the city’s jail on Rikers Island.

He told the papers he was so drunk during the assault that he doesn’t recall much about it.

But he says he remembers the victim screaming.

Prosecutors say Lafrem followed the woman into a bathroom after she resisted his advances on the dance floor and broke her nose, jaw and eye socket and fractured her skull.

He is charged with attempted murder and attempted rape.

The 30-year-old metal worker said he knows he “made a mistake” and has to pay for it.

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