Former London’s Burning actor John Alford, 54, has been jailed at St Albans Crown Court for eight-and-a-half years after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls aged 14 and 15 during a party at a friend’s home.
John Alford, 53, who appeared in court under his real name John Shannon, was found guilty at St Albans Crown Court following a week-long trial. The jury reached its verdicts after more than 13 hours of deliberations, convicting him on all counts.
The court heard that the offences involved girls aged 14 and 15 and took place during the early hours of 9 April 2022 at a property in Hertfordshire. Alford faced four counts of sexual activity with the younger girl, along with charges of sexual assault and assault by penetration relating to the second teenager.
As the verdicts were delivered, John Alford, allegedy reacted from the dock by putting his head in his hands and shouting: ‘Wrong, I didn’t do this’.
Jurors were told that both girls had been drinking alcohol and were drunk following a night out at a pub. The offences occurred at the home of a third girl, whose father was friends with Alford.
During the trial, the prosecution said Alford bought £250 worth of food, alcohol and cigarettes from a nearby petrol station in the early hours of the morning, including a bottle of vodka that the girls later drank. The court heard that he then had sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old girl in the garden of the property and later in a downstairs toilet. It was also alleged that he inappropriately touched the 15-year-old girl while she lay half asleep on a living room sofa.
One of the victims told the court she felt ‘absolutely sick’ following the assault. She said, ‘We were all just like dozing off. That was when John started to touch me.’
She explained that after being dropped off at the other girl’s home, they immediately went into the bathroom together, where they ‘spoke about everything that happened’. She later opened up about the incidents while visiting another friend on April 11th. ‘I had a mental breakdown to my best mate’s mum in the garden and she called my mum,’ she said.
In a video recording of her police interview played to the jury, the younger girl said she had never had sex before that night. She told officers: ‘I told him to stop because I didn’t want to have sex with an old man.’
While giving evidence, John Alford denied all allegations and became emotional in court. He told jurors that he had ‘never touched either of them girls’.
John Alford disclosed previous criminal convictions dating back to 1999, including offences relating to the supply of drugs, disorderly behaviour, drink-driving, criminal damage and obstructing police. He told the court that a conviction for supplying drugs had resulted in him being ‘blacklisted’ as an actor.
Prosecutor Julie Whitby told the jury that John ‘was in no doubt both the girls were under 16’. She said the defendant denied that any sexual activity had taken place and claimed he told one girl ‘no’, pointing out that he had children of a similar age. In his police statement, John said: ‘At no point did I touch her in any sexual way at all.’
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The trial had originally been scheduled to begin in December but was postponed after Alford collapsed. The charges followed an investigation by Hertfordshire’s specialist Sexual Offences Investigation Team.
The actor became known to television audiences in the 1980s after being cast as Robbie Wright in the BBC children’s drama Grange Hill in 1985. From 1993, he played firefighter Billy Ray in ITV’s London’s Burning. He briefly stepped away from acting to work as a scaffolder and minicab driver, but returned to the industry in 2000.
