Overview
- The Prison Service confirmed that John Alford, legally John Shannon, died on 13 March at HMP Bure in Norfolk.
- He was 54 and had been jailed in January for eight and a half years after convictions for sexually assaulting girls aged 14 and 15.
- Jurors found him guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old and of sexual assault and assault by penetration against a 15-year-old.
- The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate the death, and no official cause has been released.
- Reporting based on an unnamed source says staff found him unresponsive in bed during morning checks, and trial evidence said he had earlier bought about £250 of food, alcohol and cigarettes, including vodka, before the April 2022 offences in Hertfordshire.