Weird World: permanent erection keeps thief out of jail

A German burglar has escaped a prison sentence - because he suffers from a permanent erection. Maurice Baumann, 32, was sentenced to a year's jail for burgling homes in the British army garrison town of Bielefeld. But he escaped prison after entering hospital as an "emergency case" for his unrelenting priapism. After a week's treatment, doctors admitted they were only able to get his manhood down to "half-mast". Baumann told a court in Bielefeld: "I woke up one morning with a hard-on. I didn't think anything of it -- that happens to men a lot. But mine never went down." A medical report revealed that doctors stuck needles in his manhood for 90 minutes in an attempt to reduce its size. But five minutes later it was erect again. They also injected medication into it but that didn't help either. A court ruled that he could stay out of jail while his problem persisted but the chief prosecutor of Bielefeld is not happy. Harald Krahmoeller said: "Only patients with acute medical problems can stay out of jail and I don't regard him as an acute case. I hope to have him behind bars within two weeks."

HAVE they tried letting him have sex?