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Ottawa police said they would investigate how a 911 operator handled an emergency call from a 74-year-old man who was beaten inside his subsidized apartment and then arrested on a sexual assault accusation made by someone at the scene, according to the Ottawa Citizen.

Marian Andrzejewski, a Polish-born painter who came to Canada in 1987, dialed 911 on Oct. 23, 2010, after two men forced their way into his Rochester Street public housing unit and attacked him, the newspaper reported. One of the men later admitted punching him at least 15 times.

The call ran about 13 minutes, and the operator struggled to understand Andrzejewski, whose English was limited. It took more than three minutes for the calltaker to ask his first language, and after he answered Polish, the operator did not connect him to the force's translation service, according to the report. "Quit saying yes. Stop it," the operator said at one point. Later the operator told him, "It's hard for me to help you because I can't understand what you're trying to tell me."

When officers arrived, they spoke with people outside the building before going up to the apartment, the Citizen reported. A woman at the scene, identified as the mother of one of the intruders, told police that Andrzejewski had confined her and sexually assaulted her.

Police arrested him. He was charged with unlawful confinement and sexual assault and spent 75 days in the Ottawa jail on Innes Road awaiting a bail hearing, according to the newspaper.

A jury later acquitted him. A veteran Ottawa coroner testified that the injuries described in the accusation were consistent with a fungal infection rather than an assault, the report said.

Ottawa police Supt. Mike Flanagan said the service would conduct a "full and complete" investigation. "On the surface of it, I have some issues about how the call was handled," he said, adding that 911 operators are "the public's lifeline."