him into a prison break, and attacked him when he refused. After this incident, he was transferred to a special detention center housing the most dangerous criminals of the prison, which at the time held only seven inmates. Death Ernst Karl began to have repeated psychotic breaks as a result of his schizophrenia. He had delusions that he was still working as a police officer and was being shot at by the other inmates and followed by criminal gangs. As a result, he received psychiatric and medical treatment. On June 14, 2001, he had a severe psychotic episode which resulted in damage to his cell and during which his nose was broken. The on-duty in-house doctor, Dr. Stippler, administered biperiden on him and ordered for him to be accommodated in a specially secured room and to be strapped to a restraining bed to prevent self-harm. Judicial officials testified to having carried out checks every half hour and finding him sleeping peacefully, but he was nonetheless found dead the next morning. The cause of death was determined to be an ileus, and he was pronounced dead at 7:55 AM. Photos were released of the pale and lifeless prisoner strapped to the bed, in which blood was visible coming from his nose and mouth. The photos, along with the fact that restraining beds had been banned in Austrian prisons since 1994, led to public outcry and protests. Judicial inquiry An investigation revealed that the bed was not a restraining bed of the kind that had been banned by Article 103 of the Penal Code in 1994, but a medical bed which was used as part of medical and psychatric treatment, and that the same class of bed was also used for non-prisoners. Restraint in a medical bed of this kind, if seen as a medical necessity, was still allowed. This was the reasoning offered by the prison doctor. The public prosecutor's office brought charges of negligent homicide against the officials and doctors who were on duty at the time of Karl's death. The case was examined by the Judiciary of Austria. Dr. Wolfgang Denk, a specialist in forensic medicine, wrote in a testimony dated April 8, 2002: "... Ernst K. died as a result of a intestinal obstruction in an area of pre-existing growths in the abdominal cavity, leading to cardiovascular failure... the death was natural, and the bed's restraining belts were