TV
fireman faces jail over drugs
By Sue
Quinn
Thursday May 6, 1999
The Guardian
Former London's Burning star John Alford, who claimed he was 'targeted and entrapped' by an undercover newspaper reporter to deal in drugs, was yesterday facing a prison sentence after being found guilty of supplying cocaine and cannabis.
Alford, 27, was arrested after an elaborate 'sting' operation by the News of the World, in which he was filmed handing over drugs to a bogus Arabian prince. The actor, who was praised for the 'eloquent and brilliant' way he conducted his own defence, had begged the jury 'from the heart' that he was not a drug dealer, saying he had been 'stupid and gullible' for succumbing to the 'set up'.
But after the 10 day trial, the jury of five women and seven men convicted Alford, who was tried under his real name John Shannon, of supplying more than 2 grams of cocaine and just under 12 grams of cannabis resin to News of the World investigative editor Mazher Mahmood in August 1997.
Alford, from Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire, was cleared of a third charge of offering to supply cocaine.
Snaresbrook crown court had heard that Mr Mahmood, acting on a tip-off from an unnamed 'showbiz acquaintance' that Alford dealt in drugs, posed as HRH Mohammed Al-Kareen and lured the actor to the Savoy hotel on the pretext of discussing a lucrative business proposition.
There, Alford was covertly videotaped displaying extensive knowledge about drugs and, finally, delivering cocaine and cannabis to the 'prince'.
Martin Hicks, prosecuting, said the actor had simply given in to 'greed, vanity and a desire for self-advancement'.
He insisted that however sorry the jury might feel for the actor, they had to try the case on the evidence.
But in an impassioned 25-minute closing argument, for which he won praise from prosecution lawyers and Judge Stephen Robbins, Alford insisted he was the victim of journalistic methods 'from the dark ages'.
He said he was an 'honest, working class' man who had been entrapped because of who he was.
While admitting he was 'technically' guilty of handing over drugs, he deserved to be acquitted, he told the jurors.
'When law and justice conflict, justice must prevail,' he said.
After the verdict, Judge Robbins said Alford, who has admitted using cocaine from the age of 13, would be sentenced on May 26 and that a prison term was 'inevitable'.