John Alford, who is best known for his role in London’s Burning, is accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls at a party – one of whom was just 14, a court has heard
John Alford, former star of London’s Burning, has been accused of sexually abusing two teenage girls at a party, according to court proceedings.
The 53-year-old actor faces charges of four counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl and two counts relating to another girl, aged 15 at the time, of sexual assault and assault by penetration.
The trial, which opened at St Albans Crown Court on Tuesday, heard that Alford allegedly assaulted both girls, who were unknown to him and intoxicated, after visiting a Hertfordshire property following a night out at the pub.
The alleged offences are said to have occurred in the early hours of 9 April 2022 at the home of a third girl, a friend of the alleged victims, where a small party was taking place, the court was told.
“They were drinking, they were chatting, they were spending time with each other,” prosecutor Julie Whitby stated.
Jurors were informed that the 14 year old girl had attempted to call her mother and order an Uber to leave the property after her friends departed around 12.30am, but was unsuccessful.
Alford, also known for his role in Grange Hill and charged under his real name John Shannon, had been at the pub with the father of the third girl. Both men arrived at the property around 2am.
The court heard that the alleged victims were left alone with the defendant after others at the property retired to bed, and he asked them their ages.
“Mr Shannon was in no doubt that these two girls were both under 16,” Ms Whitby asserted.
“They just thought they were having an evening with a family friend.”
Alford then briefly left the property and went to a nearby petrol station, and came back with a bottle of vodka.
He asked the 14-year-old girl to sit on his lap after going outside into the property’s garden for a cigarette, which the girl described as feeling “a bit strange”, the court heard.
Alford then allegedly started to kiss and touch her before having sexual intercourse with her.
“She didn’t say stop beforehand, but she didn’t want it to happen,” Ms Whitby said.
Later in the evening, Alford then had sex with the girl for a second time in a downstairs toilet in the property after pulling her onto him, jurors were told.
“He asked her ‘Do you want this babe?’ and she said no,” Ms Whitby said.
It is also alleged that Alford then sexually assaulted a second 15-year-old girl.
Both girls did not say anything about the alleged assaults immediately after they happened as they had been drinking “a fair amount of vodka”, the prosecutor said.
Police received a third-party report from the 15 year old girl’s mother on April 11 2022 outlining the allegations, jurors were told.
The defendant was then arrested the following day after both girls were interviewed.
In a video of her police interview played to the court, the 14 year old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had never had sex before the night of the alleged incidents.
“I told him to stop because I didn’t want to have sex with an old man,” the girl stated.
She mentioned that she had been at the property since 7pm and had consumed around half a bottle of vodka, but that both she and the second girl had stopped drinking before Alford arrived at the property.
When asked about the defendant’s behaviour during the evening, the girl described him as being “overly nice” but was “slurring his words, and he would repeat things quite often”.
When questioned about what transpired in the garden, the girl admitted: “I didn’t really want to sit on his lap but I didn’t think it was a big deal.
“I was so drunk I wasn’t really thinking of anything.”
The girl revealed that the sexual intercourse with Alford lasted a couple of minutes and that she asked him to stop “three or four times”.
Describing the alleged incident in the bathroom, she said she had removed her own clothing before the defendant pulled her towards him.
She mentioned that the second girl had informed her she was sexually assaulted by Alford while he sat between them, but she did not witness the incident happen.
The defendant went upstairs to bed shortly before 6am, the girl stated.
When asked why she did not personally contact the police about what happened, she added: “Just because I knew my mum would find out, and my dad.
“I just didn’t want them to know.”
In a statement provided to the force, Alford claimed one of the two girls “kept on trying to kiss me” and had told him she was 17-years-old.
He asserted: “At no point did I touch her in any sexual way whatsoever.”
Alford claimed that the two alleged victims were “trying to extort money from him and they were trying to trick him”, but Ms Whitby stated that no evidence supporting these allegations was discovered on either the girls’ or the defendant’s phones when examined.
The trial had been scheduled to commence in December of the previous year, but the court was informed earlier that Alford had been hospitalised and was medically unwell.
Alford, from Holloway, north London, appeared in the dock donning a white shirt and a pair of headphones.
He refutes all the charges levelled against him.
The trial continues.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
