London’s Burning star John Alford has been found dead in prison weeks after being sent to jail for sexually abusing two young girls.

Alford, 54, was unresponsive on his bed when staff opened his cell door on Friday, it has been reported.

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 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 from 1993 to 1998. 

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. Pictured: Alford’s custody photo

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.

Alford committed the sexual offences in 2022 and was convicted by a majority verdict of six charges

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’.

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.

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.

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 was previously convicted of supplying drugs in a tabloid sting and worked more recently as a taxi driver and scaffolder.

As he was handed his jail term in January, 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.’ 

A Prison Service spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘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.