“I admit that I kicked the woman down the stairs,” Svetoslav S. told the Berlin state court.

But he claimed that he could not remember the crime and that he only became aware of it when police made the CCTV footage public.

“I found it horrible myself when I saw it,” he said.

The defendant faces charges of grievous bodily harm over kicking the young woman down the stairs in October 2016, an act caught on CCTV cameras.

The attack caused public outcry across Germany. On the grainy footage of the attack, Svetoslav S. can be seen walking up behind an unsuspecting woman, a bottle of beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other. He then kicks her down the stairs of Hermanstrasse U-Bahn station, before taking a drag on his cigarette and walking off.

The woman broke her arm in the incident, as well as suffering lacerations to the head.

Svetoslav S. was arrested in December, after police released the CCTV footage in an attempt to find further clues about the crime.

The 28-year-old Bulgarian told the court that on the night in question he had drunk large quantities of alcohol, smoked marijuana and consumed cocaine and crystal meth, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports.

He also recounted how he had fought with his wife on the same evening and had then been wound up by his elder brother, events which had soured his mood.

His wife confirmed his version of events to the court, saying that she had called him before the attack.

“I was jealous and I really annoyed him,” she said.

She also described how the couple had been married since they were 15 years old and had three children together. She said that her husband had been badly injured in a car crash in 2008 and had been aggressive and dependent on recreational drugs ever since.

The victim is set to speak to the court on Thursday.

Svetoslav S. let it be known through his lawyer that he wishes to apologize to her in person.

The charge of grievous bodily harm entails a sentence of anywhere between six months and ten years in jail. 

He faces a further charge of public exhibitionism. Prosecutors allege that he masturbated in front of two women in the middle of the day in the Reinickendorf neighbourhood of Berlin two weeks before the violent assault. He then repeated this crime in front of another witness around 35 minutes later.