German's Deutsche Telekom blamed a young man's death

German police have blamed phone giant Deutsche Telekom for a young man's death after they refused to hand over his address after he posted a suicide note on the internet.

Thorsten Schmidt, 18, killed himself after posting comments on self-help forum last month claiming he was going to end his life.

At 1.06am on the day of his death, he wrote: "I have been longing for love for an eternity, but, no, I haven't even managed to have a short relationship. Nobody hates me as much as I hate myself."

Then at 6.07am, he said: "I only just managed to write this, I have noticed the strong effect of the pills and I am starting to fall asleep. That was almost 100 pills, Diazepam, Palladon, Paroxetin and Doxepin."

Nadine Friedrichs, the administrator of the forum, called police when she saw his messages. Officers arrived at her home minutes later and took down the online address of the sender of the messages.

They then asked internet service provider, Deutsche Telekom, to track down Schmidt's street address but were told the "legal grounds" for giving out the information had not been met.

Rainer Bruckert, head of investigative support in Hanover, said: "I am very shocked that Telekom spies on the call data of its own employees but refuses to provide information that could save a human life."

Police finally found Thorsten's body at 11.18am on the morning of his death after picking up his internet trail through a different service provider.

"Twenty minutes and we could have saved him," said an police spokesman. "Five hours and the pills won. I wonder with what kind of faceless bureaucracy we are dealing with here."

Deutsche Telekom has refused to comment on the incident in order to avoid "influencing possible investigations."