John Alford’s heart condition that killed him in prison – everything we know – The Mirror<\/title><meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Alford was the actor known for roles in Grange Hill and London's Burning but was jailed in January over child sex offences and died just weeks into his eight-year sentence at the age of 54\"\/><meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Lloyd Beck\"\/><link rel=\"manifest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/manifest.json?v=6f7ed9d5128d770b\"\/><meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noarchive, max-image-preview:large\"\/><meta name=\"Googlebot-News\" content=\"noarchive\"\/><meta name=\"referrer\" content=\"unsafe-URL\"\/><meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"John Shannon, John Alford, Prisons, Heart attack, Heart disease, Crime\"\/><meta name=\"news_keywords\" content=\"John Shannon, John Alford, Prisons, Heart attack, Heart disease, Crime\"\/><link rel=\"canonical\" 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was the actor known for roles in Grange Hill and London’s Burning but was jailed in January over child sex offences and died just weeks into his eight-year sentence at the age of 54<\/h2>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37305839\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"John Alford \" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37305839.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/1_John-Alford-court-case.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37305839.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/1_John-Alford-court-case.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37305839.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/1_John-Alford-court-case.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37305839.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200f\/1_John-Alford-court-case.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Former Grange Hill star John Alford died in prison\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Former Grange Hill star John Alford died in prison<cite aria-label=\"Image: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section data-testid=\"social-follow\" class=\"SocialFollowBar_wrapper__h4k_D SocialFollowBar_left__oJoLE false undefined\">Follow mirror:<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"RHRBlock_h-line__hVhY7\"\/>\n<aside class=\"RHRBlock_right-aside-wrapper__tM2wc\">\n<p><span aria-live=\"polite\" aria-busy=\"true\"><span class=\"react-loading-skeleton\" 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