An 87-year-old London man says he was sitting in the home he built, watching The Bachelorette on television, when police came to his door and roughed him up.

But it’s Serge Zubko — cuts and bruises all over his face and hands — now facing a charge of assault for the incident that occurred Monday.

Worse, he fears his wife — who suffers from Alzheimer’s, according to his lawyer — will be taken away from him and put in a nursing home because of the traumatic event.

“I can’t sleep. It’s over and over and over (thinking) . . . After 60 years in this country why at the end did this happen to me?” he said. “I’m an 87-year-old man. I don’t need the police to come over and beat me up like that.”

Zubko said the chain of events started about 9 p.m. Monday when his wife, who he says suffers from “100% dementia” and who speaks mostly Polish, left the house and got the attention of three girls walking by when she said there was a “bad man” in the house.

Someone called police, who came out to check on the woman and the situation. The only person inside was Zubko, who was watching TV and unaware of what was going on outside, he said.

When officers arrived, they tried to speak to Zubko’s wife, but she doesn’t speak English. So they went to the house and knocked on the window, he said.

“There’s a knock on the picture window . . . I get up, and hear a harsh voice saying ‘Do you live here?’ It startles me. Whose business is it?” said Zubko, recalling the incident and saying he didn’t realize at first it was police at the window.

“I answered with a question: ‘Can’t you tell (that I live here)?’ ”

The voice said to come outside.

When he got to the door, he said, he saw the officers, but also saw his wife near a police cruiser at the road. He instinctively tried to move toward her, but officers blocked him, yanking his hands behind his back to arrest him, he said.

And then, Zubko said, they shoved him face down onto the driveway.

“It hurt like hell,” he said, adding he couldn’t help but cry in pain and shout for help as he begged the officers to uncuff him.

“Who would handcuff a guy (behind) his back and push him over on his face, whether he’s 87 or 17?” asked London lawyer Bill Dewar who said he had been retained earlier this week by Zubko.

“You can’t get around the fact, the guy is on his own property and committed no crime.”

Dewar said police “should have known his wife was an Alzheimer’s patient,” and even if they wanted to arrest Zubko, they could have done so with less force.

Police said Zubko was “uncooperative” and swore at the officers when they started asking questions out of “concern for the woman’s well-being.”

Police don’t deny arresting Zubko, or that he got hurt during the process, but say he was aggressive.

They stand by the charge against him for allegedly assaulting the officers, London police Const. Ken Steeves said.

“He shoved the officers more than once,” Steeves said. “He was resisting the arrest and was aggressive.

“During the arrest, he sustained an injury to his nose,” Steeves said.

“It’s unfortunate that he sustained injury because that’s certainly not the intent of our officers during any arrest.”

But Zubko said “police are trained to subdue people,” adding, “even if it’s true (the police assertion that Zubko provoked them) it’s still an overreaction.”

Asked to comment on Zubko’s claim the officers shoved him face down onto the ground after cuffing him, Steeves said the officers weren’t available for comment, but that he would leave a message stating the Free Press wanted more answers.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Zubko, who said he was taken to hospital by ambulance for his facial injuries.

“Things like this don’t happen in Canada,” he added.

Zubko and his wife — who is Polish — married in Germany, then moved to Canada in 1950. He built his home in 1960, and he and his wife raised their two daughters there. Now, as a result of the incident, he said, health-care workers have suggested his wife needs more care in a facility.

“I hate to see the woman go,” he said.

Asked how police feel about Zubko saying he was assaulted, Steeves said, “He can share the story with anybody. That’s what the courts are for, to provide his side of the story.”

jennifer.obrien@sunmedia.ca

patrick.maloney@sunmedia.ca