A man who went missing after disappearing on a canoeing trip off Hartlepool in March 2002 has no memory as to what happened and where he had been during the past five years, a police office said today.

John Darwin, a 57-year-old father of two presumed to be dead by his family, walked into the West End Central police station on Saturday and announced: "I think I'm a missing person."

Mr Darwn went missing five and a half years ago after going paddling off Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool. The remains of his red canoe were found washed up on a nearby beach but despite a huge search operation involving five lifeboats and a fixed-wing aircraft no sign of his body was ever found.

His sons, Mark, 31, and Anthony, 29, who both live in the south of England, were called to an "emotional reunion" with their father at the police station off Regent Street.

Today, Inspector Helen Eustace of Cleveland Police told the Hartlepool Mail that she was trying to piece together Mr Darwin's movements but the missing man himself could not fill in the gaps himself.

"We have no account of what's happened in the last five years. He walked into a police station and said 'I think I am a missing person'," she said.

"The guy can't remember anything about what's happened or why he's come forward. He has no memory at all. He has obviously been somewhere for the last five years and a lot of questions need answering."

Ms Eustace said that Mr Darwin had been checked over, was "showing no signs of any illness" and had been free to leave the station.

She added: "It is very infrequent that a case like this happens. It's quite a shock really, more of a shock for the family."

Cleveland Police said that officers hoped to interview Mr Darwin later today to establish his whereabouts of the past five years, after which they could close his missing person file. "We need to speak to him before we close the case, to see whether there are any issues with him of if he needs help," a spokeswoman said. "It's entirely routine."

Mr Darwin studied at the St Francis Xavier College in Liverpool. In January 2002, two months before his disappearance, he wrote on the Friends Reunited website: "After leaving St Francis went to De La Salle College Manchester where I did biology and chemistry. Taught in Derwentside for 18 years before leaving teaching to join Barclays Bank.

"At present work for Prison Service and have portfolio of properties. Married to a convent girl Anne Stephenson, we have two grown up sons and two dogs. Recently moved to Seaton Carew where I hope to retire soon."

Mr Darwin's wife, who considered him dead, was reported to have sold the family home in the past few weeks and was believed to be living abroad in the Caribbean or Central America.

A doctor’s receptionist, she gave an interview six months after her husband vanished, saying: "People die, have a funeral, they have a headstone, there is something to mark the fact they existed on this earth.

"But without a body, I don’t know how we can mark John’s life. All I want is to bury his body. It would enable me to move on. It’s difficult to grieve without bringing things to a close, but as it is I’m in limbo and there’s nothing I can do."

Mr Darwin’s 90-year-old father, Ronald Darwin of Blackhall Colliery, Co Durham, was too ill to speak about his son today. "I don’t want to have any more strokes," he said.

Earlier, he told the Evening Standard newspaper: "I always said to the police that there might be more to this than it appeared at first. When his canoe was found but he wasn’t, it didn’t seem right."

He said that he suspected his son’s work as a prison officer at Holme House Prison, Teesside, could have been linked to his disappearance.

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