ELECTRICIAN Craig Caygill believes he met back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin three years ago when he was still thought to have been lost at sea.

Mr Caygill worked at the Darwin home in The Cliff, Seaton Carew, for two months in 2004 and was introduced to a man he now believes to have been John Darwin.

Yesterday Cleveland Police issued a picture of a bearded Darwin ( and how he looks on his false passport.

Darwin was at the time believed to have died after taking a canoe out to sea in March 2002 and never being seen again.

He was pronounced dead at an inquest the following year, but Mr Caygill believes he met Darwin in 2004 after being called by wife Anne Darwin to rewire the home. Mr Caygill said Mrs Darwin introduced him to "a friend" who did odd jobs around the house – but he now believes he was unknowingly introduced to her 'dead' husband.

He said: "When I first started she was the only one there, and after a bit this man was introduced to me as being an odd job man who did bits and bobs around the house.

"When we turned up on a morning he was either there or he was not, but we never saw him go out and he never arrived in a car or anything.

"I think it was John. It is too much of a coincidence. Going by the picture I would say that was him. He had a beard.

"I think it is weird that I have seen him and especially when I saw this photograph, it is him."

Mr Caygill worked at the house between January and March 2004 when his firm, CDM Electrical, was contracted to rewire the top floors and cellar at number 3 The Cliff.

It is believed that Mr Darwin lived in the property for three years before giving himself in to police in London on Saturday, December 1.

The dad of one, of Ashby Grove, Hartlepool, added: "I always had a feeling that someone was there, but I just thought I was being daft.

"I heard moving about and I used to joke that it was a ghost. We always had this feeling someone was there."