Intent is irrelevant. Let me make a very, very simple analogy: If I am walking along and I step really hard -- by accident or not -- on someone's foot, and they say "OW! That hurt!" as an empathetic and morally responsible member of society, accepting and understanding that someone else's pain is more important than my need to get away without apologizing, my responsibility is to apologize. Whether or not I meant it. Whether or not I think their level of reaction is appropriate. I don't know if their foot is broken or not. I don't know how hard it felt to them. All I know is that I did something that hurt them, and I need to acknowledge that pain and say I'm sorry.

Intent is irrelevant.