John Alford, known for his role in “London’s Burning,” was discovered deceased in his prison cell, mere weeks after being incarcerated for the sexual abuse of two young girls. Alford, whose birth name was John Shannon, was found unresponsive by prison staff during a routine check last Friday.

A representative from the Prison Service confirmed to the Daily Mail, “John Shannon died in prison on March 13, 2026. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will conduct an investigation, as is standard with any death in custody.”

Alford, a former “Grange Hill” actor, was sentenced in January to eight and a half years in prison. His conviction stemmed from incidents involving a 14-year-old girl whom he assaulted while she was intoxicated at a house party, along with the sexual assault of her 15-year-old friend.

The 54-year-old, originally from Glasgow, was left alone with the two victims in the early morning hours after other party-goers had retired for the night.

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. 

Glasgow-born Alford, 54, 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 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 was in the BBC school drama Grange Hill in the 1980s and played Billy Ray in London’s Burning from 1993 to 1998.

He had been held at the Category C HMP Bure in Norfolk, where he was found dead according to The Sun on Sunday.

On the night of his offences Alford had spent the night at a pub with the father of a third girl on April 8, 2022 before going to the property where the offences took place.

After others went to bed he was left alone with his victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He bought a bottle of vodka at a nearby petrol station before returning and asking the 14-year-old to sit on his lap when he went to the garden for a cigarette.

Alford kissed the girl before having sex with her.

Later in the evening Alford had sex with the girl again in a downstairs toilet after pulling her on to him.

He sexually assaulted the older girl while sitting between the two victims.

The 15-year-old’s mother reported Alford to police two days later and he was arrested the following day.

In a victim impact statement, the younger girl – who had turned 18 by the time of the trial in September – said Alford’s sexual assault had ‘affected me and my family in every way’.

The 15-year-old’s mother reported Alford to police two days later and he was arrested the following day.

Being hugged by her own father no longer ‘feels comfortable because he was a man’.

She had told the trial she was good friends with the second victim and both had been invited by another friend to her house in Hertfordshire for the evening.

Tearful as she spoke, the girl said the sex with Alford in the garden lasted ‘no longer than ten minutes’, while the second instance in the bathroom lasted five minutes. 

Houzla Rawat, defending Alford, suggested she had been ‘physically friendly’ towards the defendant throughout the evening. She replied: ‘I disagree.’

The victim also denied following Alford into the garden after he went out to have a cigarette.

Asked by prosecutor Julie Whitby why she went along with what Alford told her, she said: ‘Most children, if an adult is telling you to do something, you’ll do it … especially if you are drunk or impaired.’

In a video of her police interview played to the court, she revealed she had never had sex before.

‘I told him to stop because I didn’t want to have sex with an old man,’ she said.

The 15-year-old told officers during her interview how ‘we were all just like dozing off… that was when John started to touch me’.

It made her feel ‘absolutely sick’, she added.

Since the assault she said she had tried to take her own life and told the court Alford ‘destroyed my mental wellbeing’.

She said she had showered immediately after being dropped off at the other girl’s house the next day as she was ‘stressing out’.

The pair did not mention the assaults at the time because they had been drinking ‘a fair amount of vodka’, the jury heard.

It was only while visiting a different friend’s home on April 11 that the older girl shared the abuse.

‘I had a mental breakdown to my best mate’s mum in the garden and she called my mum. (I was) crying, screaming, very sad,’ she said.

Alford angrily denied touching either girl during his police interview, saying: ‘None of this makes sense.

‘It’s a set-up. I didn’t rape anyone. I am not a nonce. This is f****** scandalous.’

He claimed he had been outside when the then 14-year-old was suddenly ‘sitting on my lap with her arms around me, trying to kiss me. I recoiled, I stood up… I literally had to prise her off’.

Alford added: ‘It was quite obvious that she was very drunk and being flirtatious.

‘I did not reciprocate in any way, shape or form at any time.’

Crying while giving evidence in court, he told jurors he ‘never touched either of them girls’, adding there was ‘no DNA’ evidence and he would stand by his denial ‘until the day I die’.

Alford suggested he was the victim of a blackmail plot and described a phone call he received on April 10, 2022, from ‘an Irish-sounding traveller-type voice’.

‘He said “Is that John? Do yourself a favour and come to Broxbourne car park, Hoddesdon”,’ the defendant said.

‘I said something stupid like “I’m with my children”. Then he said to bring the money and I said to f*** off.’

The actor told police that they were ‘going to extort money from me’.

But the jury heard there was no material supporting these claims on the defendant’s phone or those of his young victims.

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Laura Harrison noted the victims had been ‘born long after his career began’ and had no idea of his status – undermining his claims they were trying to blackmail him.

She added: ‘There is no doubt that Shannon’s behaviour that evening was predatory and carried out solely for his own sexual gratification. Reporting offences of this nature is never easy.

‘I want to commend the victims for their courage in coming forward and for the strength they have shown throughout this lengthy and complex investigation. Their determination has never wavered and this is testament to their bravery.’

A jury at St Albans Crown Court convicted Alford in January on all six charges he faced by a 10-2 majority after his trial.

As he was handed his jail term, Recorder Caroline Overton said Alford was the ‘one remaining adult’ at the party.

She added: ‘You were a trusted family friend and fully aware that the girls were 14 and 15 years of age.’ 

Recorder Overton said Alford’s ‘focus’ during the trial was ‘on the impact to you and your family rather than the victims’, which she said ‘limits the extent to which mitigation can be applied’.

Alford had denied two charges of engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged under 16 and two of engaging in penetrative activity with a girl under 16.

He had also pleaded not guilty to assaulting a female aged 13 or over by penetration with part of body and sexual assault on a female.

His original trial was postponed after he collapsed the day before it was due to start.

As the guilty verdicts were returned on September 5, Alford slumped in the dock with his head in his hands.

He was also heard saying: ‘Wrong, I didn’t do this.’

Once one of British television’s most famous faces, Alford was written out of London’s Burning – which attracted up to 18 million viewers a week – when he was caught in a News of the World ‘Fake Sheikh’ sting.

The actor was found guilty by a jury at London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court in 1999 of one count of supplying cocaine to Fake Sheikh Mazher Mahmood and another similar charge involving cannabis resin.

Alford said he had been invited to the meeting with the Fake Sheikh at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1997.

He was offered the chance to attend the celebrity opening of a nightclub in Dubai, where he would get the chance to meet Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone and possibly work with them in future.

During this meeting, Mahmood asked whether Alford would be able to supply some cocaine and cannabis on his behalf.

Mahmood was later convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after using illegal methods to get stories but Alford’s attempts to get his own convictions overturned are understood to have failed.

With his career in tatters he turned to driving a taxi and scaffolding work to get by.

He was banned from the roads for 16 months in January 2006 for drink-driving after a crash in Islington, North London in April 2005.

But he was in trouble with the law again in 2018 when he was accused of assaulting two police officers after jumping behind the wheel of a bin lorry left with a smashed windscreen.

The disgraced star sparked chaos in Camden, north London, when he got behind the wheel of a 10-tonne truck.

More than 20 officers in seven patrol cars were joined by an ambulance.

One witness said that the huge police presence suggested they ‘seemed to respond like it was a terror attack’.

Footage of the early morning incident showed the former actor initially smiling while behind the wheel of the stationary vehicle.

He then yelled to the man filming him: ‘I tried to save your truck. It was reversing,’ before staggering out of the cab.

Alford can then be heard cheering as the sound of police sirens echoes down the street.

The mobile footage, obtained by The Sun, then cut to him grappling with two police officers in the street as he screamed: ‘I ain’t done nothing’.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.