The Sun has apologised for a second time to a man whom it wrongly identified as a child sex offender.

On March 29 the tabloid published a picture of a man over the headline "Face of kid ban pervert". The adjoining article stated that the photograph was of Christopher Harris, who had been banned from going near children for life after assaulting girls in Great Yarmouth.

However, owing to a mix-up by a picture agency, the photograph was in fact of David Gazley, a man with no connection to any such offences.

The Sun published an apology to Mr Gazley on Monday March 31, and again on Saturday April 5. In its second apology for the "serious error", the Sun stated that it has agreed to pay Mr Gazley damages.

"We must stress that Mr Gazley is entirely innocent. We sincerely apologise to Mr Gazley for the distress and embarrassment which he has suffered as a result of this error," said the Sun on Saturday.

Rebekah Wade, who took over from David Yelland as editor of the Sun in January, ran a high profile "name and shame" campaign against paedophiles when she was editor of the News of the World.

The campaign was inspired by the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne. However, it attracted criticism for inciting mob violence and forcing paedophiles to go underground.

The News of the World was forced to pay out more than ￡20,000 in damages in 2001 to two men with the same names as paedophiles identified in the paper.