British actor John Alford, known for his roles in Grange Hill and London Burning, has been found dead in prison.
The Prison Service confirmed to the BBC that Alford, whose real name was John Shannon, was found dead at HMP Bure in Norfolk on March 13, 2026.
“John Shannon passed away in prison on March 13, 2026,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said in a statement. “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
The cause of death has not been released.
Just two months after his death, the 54-year-old began serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls. His sentence begins on January 14, 2026.
In September 2025, a jury at St Albans Crown Court found him guilty of sexually assaulting two girls, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the offenses in April 2022.
Prosecutor Chris White told the jury Alford “had full knowledge of the ages of the girls, but he chose to take advantage of them – giving them alcohol and then committing sexual offenses against them.”
Alford was found guilty of four counts of sexual intercourse with a young girl, as well as sexual and penetrative assault on an older teen.
He denies the crimes. According to the BBC, when the jury returned the guilty verdict, he put his head in his hands and shouted: “I was wrong, I didn’t do it.”
The actor, from Holloway, north London, rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, playing Robbie Wright in the children’s series Grange Hill from 1985 to 1989. In 1993, he joined the ITV drama series London Burning as firefighter Billy Ray.
Alford was jailed for nine months in 1997 for supplying cocaine and marijuana to an undercover reporter.
Read the original article at syracuse.com. Click here to add syracuse.com as your preferred source.
