John Alford has been found dead in prison, aged 54.
The disgraced British actor was two months into serving his eight years and six months sentence for sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2022.
His death was confirmed by The Mirror, who shared a statement from a prison spokesperson.
“John Shannon died in prison on 13 March 2026,” the statement read.
“As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
The Sun reported that Alford was found unresponsive in his bed at HMP Bure in Norfolk, England.
“He didn’t wake up in the morning. He was in his bed and they thought he was just asleep,” a source told the publication.
“When they tried to wake him there was no response and they realised he was dead.”
Alford is known for his role as fireman Billy Ray in London’s Burning in the 1990s. He started his acting career when he was 13-years-old, playing Robbie Right in the BBC teen drama Grange Hill.
He was previously convicted in 1999 of supplying cocaine and cannabis, where he received a nine-month prison sentence, but only served six weeks behind bars.
In 2018 he was charged with resisting a police officer, and more recently had begun serving a sentence for assaulting two teenage girls aged 14 and 15.
A court heard the teenagers had earlier been at a pub before going to a friend’s house, where Alford had been drinking with the girl’s father.
Prosecutors said he had touched one girl inappropriately while she was half asleep and sexually assaulted the other.
The court heard Alford did not know the girls but was aware they were underage.
The actor was found guilty on four counts of sexual activity with one girl and sexual assault and assault by penetration relating to the other at St Albans Crown Court last September.
Image: Hertfordshire Police
