Sons of back-from-the-dead canoeist in the clear after police quiz

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Mark and Anthony Darwin were interviewed for several hours by detectives over the weekend after seeking legal advice last week.

The brothers were questioned separately after arranging to voluntarily go to a police station in Cleveland from their homes in the South of England.

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John Darwin's sons Mark and Anthony are nothing more than 'innocent victims', say police

Their solicitor, Geoffrey Forrester, was present when Mark, 32, and 29-year-old Anthony were questioned without being under caution.

Police confirmed they had seen the brothers and had no plans to speak to them again.

Their parents Anne, 55, and John, 57, will spend Christmas on remand in separate prisons after appearing before magistrates on fraud charges.

Darwin reappeared two weeks ago after apparently drowning while on a canoe trip from his home near Hartlepool in 2002.

He was declared dead at an inquest but lived secretly in a bedsit in the rambling house he had owned with his wife.

A statement from Cleveland Police said: "Both sons of Anne and John Darwin, Mark and Anthony, were interviewed on Saturday as witnesses.

"The results of these lengthy interviews were that there was nothing to suggest they are anything other than witnesses and, of course, victims in the case."

Mark, from Finchley, North London, and Anthony, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, drove six hours to the same police station for the interviews.

They have always insisted they did not know their father, a former prison officer, was still alive until he turned up at a police station in London.

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John Darwin's sons Mark and Anthony have disowned their father

When their mother begged for their forgiveness, the brothers issued a statement publicly disowning their parents and telling how they had been duped.

Yesterday, police confirmed they had spoken to mother-of-three Kelly Steele, 41, from Kansas, who claimed Darwin asked her to buy a farm for him with £10,000 he gave her in 2004.

Darwin is accused of lying to obtain a passport and falsely claiming £25,000 life insurance.

His wife is accused of falsely obtaining insurance payouts of £25,000 and £136,500.

They will reappear before Hartlepool magistrates on January 11.