Former London’s Burning actor John Alford told police that allegations he had sexually abused two teenage girls were “scandalous” and a “set-up”, a court has heard.
The 53-year-old is accused of four counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl and two further counts relating to a 15-year-old girl of sexual assault and assault by penetration on April 9 2022.
Prosecutors allege the defendant, who is charged under his real name, John Shannon, sexually assaulted both girls while they were drunk after visiting a friend’s home following a night out at a pub in Hertfordshire.
All of the offences are alleged to have taken place at the home of a third girl, who was friends with the alleged victims.
Police received a 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.
Jurors were told on Monday at St Albans Crown Court that while being interviewed by police, former Grange Hill actor Alford had said: “None of this makes sense.
“It’s a set-up. I didn’t rape anyone. I am not a nonce. This is f****** scandalous.”
Alford, who cried while giving evidence, told jurors “I never touched either of them girls”, adding there was “no DNA” evidence and that he would stand by his denial “until the day I die”.
He added: “I did not do anything inappropriate. I acted with good intentions all night.
“I am not a nonce. I wouldn’t touch a child.
“If you do that where I’m from, that’s called street justice – I wouldn’t have made it to the court.
“If anyone in my area believed I could have possibly done this, I would be dead by now.”
The alleged victims were left alone with the defendant after others at the property went to bed, jurors were previously told.
The actor said the girls were “boisterous and loud” at the property and he was “followed” outside by the 14-year-old while he was having a cigarette.
Wearing a grey jacket and shirt, Alford told the court: “I think she said in her evidence that I asked her to come outside, and that didn’t happen.”
He added: “Within a second, she was sitting on my lap with her arms around me, trying to kiss me. I recoiled, I stood up… I literally had to prize her off.
“It was quite obvious that she was very drunk and being flirtatious.
“I did not reciprocate in any way, shape or form at any time.”
Asked if he knew how old the girls were, Alford said: “When I got there, there was no discussion of age whatsoever.
“One of the girls did say to me: ‘I’m 17, my mum lets me drink,’ when they were asking me to go to the shop. They were pestering me for cigarettes.
“I was getting more drunk, but I don’t lose my morals no matter how drunk.”
Alford said one of the girls “kept trying to grope me”, adding: “I told her in no uncertain terms to stop”.
Jurors were told Alford had brought alcohol from a shop to the house and when asked who it was for, he told jurors: “It wasn’t for the girls. The beers were for me.”
He added: “I didn’t give them a drink, not once. They were hiding the drinking.”
Discussing a phone call he said he received on April 10 2022, Alford said: “I got a phone call from an Irish-sounding traveller-type voice asking who I was.
“He said: ‘Is that John? Do yourself a favour and come to Broxbourne car park, Hoddesdon.
“I said something stupid like: ‘I’m with my children’. Then he said to bring the money and I said to f*** off.”
The actor said he told police that they were “going to extort money from me”.
Alford, a father of four, told jurors that he had been “a child actor since the age of nine”.
Jurors were told by Houzla Rawat, defending Alford, of previous convictions by the actor, which included supplying illicit drugs to former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was known as the “fake sheikh”.
Asked about the 1999 trial, Alford said: “I defended myself, which probably wasn’t the cleverest thing to do at the time.”
Ms Rawat asked Alford: “After your conviction, were you able to continue working as an actor?”
He replied: “No, I was blacklisted.”
Alford told jurors he had received a payment of £500,000 from the News of the World in relation to allegations that his phone had been hacked, adding he was not “bitter” or “twisted” over the case.
Asked what he had spent the money on, Alford said: “Solicitors got most of it. I gave it away to people who supported me. I tried to help as many people as I could.”
Discussing the impact on his mental health and drinking, Alford said: “It had quite a detrimental impact on my mental health and my outlook, trust, paranoia.
“A bottle of scotch always covers your back, doesn’t it?”
Alford described himself as a “weekly binger” in terms of his drinking at the time of the allegations, adding: “I’m an arsehole when I’m drunk to be honest with you”.
Jurors were told that Alford suffers from mental health issues, including “anxiety, depression and paranoia” and uses a hearing aid.
Alford, of Holloway, north London, denies all the charges against him.
The trial continues.
