London‘s Burning star John Alford has been found dead in prison weeks after being sent to jail for sexually abusing two young girls.
A source told The Sun on Sunday Alford, 54, was unresponsive on his bed when staff opened his cell door on Friday.
The former Grange Hill actor was jailed in January for eight-and-a-half years for having sex with a drunk 14-year-old at a house party and sexually assaulting her 15-year-old friend.
Alford had been left with his two young victims in the early hours of the morning after others at the house went to bed.
He had sex with the younger girl in the garden after asking her to sit on his lap while he had a cigarette and again later in a toilet.
Alford, a father-of-two, sexually assaulted the older girl as he sat between the the two victims as they were ‘dozing off’ at the Hertfordshire house.
He had denied the offences and claimed he was the victim of a blackmail plot after someone rang him and tried to ‘extort money from me’.
Alford, whose real name was John Shannon, was in the BBC school drama Grange Hill in the 1980s and played Billy Ray in London’s Burning before his fall from grace.
John Alford played fireman Billy Ray in ITV drama London’s Burning in the 1990s
He was sentenced to more than eight years in prison in January for sexual offences
A Prison Service spokesman told The Sun on Sunday: ‘John Shannon died in prison on 13 March 2026.
‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
