Paul responded: “I did. Just a natural thing, I guess.”

Ms Campbell said Paul had then travelled towards Royal Avenue in Belfast city centre while showing the jury a map of the route Noah cycled through the city.

Paul said: “I was only on same path as Noah for a short distance.”

The barrister said Paul had claimed during an interview with a journalist that he had found Noah’s rucksack containing his laptop on the ground in a covered walkway in the York Street/Frederick Street area.

The jury was shown footage of Noah cycling past that area without stopping.

Ms Campbell said: “I am going to suggest where you told the journalist that you found Noah’s bag is not where it was… you are wrong about that.”

Paul said: “I can only tell you where I found it. If I lied about that, what significance would that lie hold?”

Ms Campbell said: “Until this point in time we have got the coincidence of you being outside Queen’s Quarter and now the coincidence of you being on that part of his journey.

“But the coincidences, I am going to suggest, don’t stop there.”

The barrister said the jury had previously heard evidence about an anonymous caller to police who stated Paul had been in possession of Noah’s green coat.

Paul said: “I was not in possession of any green coat.”

She said: “It would be another coincidence upon coincidence?”

He said: “I did not have his coat.”

The barrister asked the witness if he had next “followed Noah’s journey” from the city centre along North Queen Street.

He said he had not.

She continued: “To the location where the phone was found?”

Paul said: “No.”

Ms Campbell said: “Do you know anything about Noah’s phone? Did you have it in your hand? Did you find it in his coat pocket or in his rucksack?

He answered: “No.”

The barrister said a report from a police expert had revealed a photograph of a hand on Noah’s phone taken on the evening he disappeared, 40 minutes after he was last seen.

She said: “Is that your hand?”

Paul responded: “No, it is not my hand.”