A regional daily has apologised after erroneously publishing a photograph purporting to be of a man charged with sex offences.

Yesterday’s Basildon Echo featured a story about David Harrison, who has been charged with two counts of causing or inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.

The article included a photograph which was wrongly stated to be of Mr Harrison.

An apology posted on the newspaper’s website last night stated: “This was printed in error and the individual pictured was not Mr Harrison.

“We unreservedly apologise for the distress that this must have caused the person whose photograph appeared, his family and friends.

“The article also wrongly stated that David Harrison had been a community warden working for St Georges Community Housing. This is not the case. Mr Harrison is not and had never been employed by St Georges.”

The Echo is the third regional daily to issue an apology after a photographic mix-up in recent weeks.

In April, the South Wales Evening Post published a photograph of an innocent man in a report of a sex case against someone with an almost identical name.

The Birmingham Mail also apologised last month after using a picture of the wrong man in a report of a court case.

A report relating to Naresh Chauhan, of Walsall, who had been convicted for benefit fraud, was illustrated with a picture of Ramesh Chauhan, a barrister’s clerk in Birmingham who had no connection with the defendant.