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Former London's Burning and Grange Hill actor John Alford has been found dead in prison just weeks after he was jailed for sexually assaulting two girls.
The 54-year-old was sentenced to eight and-a-half years in custody last month after being found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old female.
He was also convicted of sexual assault and assault by penetration relating to the second teenager, aged 15, at a property in Hertfordshire on April 9 2022.
But the former actor was found unresponsive on his bed when staff opened his cell door at HMP Bure in Norffolk on Friday.
A source told The Sun on Sunday: "He didn’t wake up in the morning.
"He was in his bed and they thought he was just asleep."
Alford found fame on the BBC school drama Grange Hill in the 1980s before playing the role as fireman Billy Ray in London’s Burning in the 1990s.
He was jailed in January after being convicted of his crimes at St Albans Crown Court.
Jurors heard during the trial that the defendant, charged under his real name John Shannon, sexually assaulted the girls while they were drunk following a night out at the pub.All of the offences took place at the home of a third girl, whose father was friends with Alford.
Recorder Caroline Overton said the victim impact statements told of the "significant and ongoing impact of your offending on their lives".
Alford was previously convicted of supplying illicit drugs to former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was known as the "fake sheikh", following a trial in 1999, and was jailed for nine months.J
Jurors heard he also received a payment of £500,000 from the news organisation in relation to allegations that his phone had been hacked.
A Prison Service spokesperson told LBC: “John Shannon died in prison on 13 March 2026. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”