SHAMED actor John Alford placed a winning bet on a horse before he was found dead in his prison cell, a friend has revealed.
The Grange Hill star, 54, rang his sister and asked her to put a wager on Johnny’s Jury for him at the Cheltenham Festival.
The 20/1 outsider won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle on Friday — but by then Alford had been found unresponsive at HMP Bure in Norfolk.
The father of two’s death came just weeks after he was jailed for eight and a half years for sexually abusing two girls aged 14 and 15 in Hoddesdon, Herts, in 2022.
Close friend Justin Smith posted on Facebook: “John liked a bet, he phoned his sister to put a bet on for him . . .”
Revealing the horse’s name as Johnny’s Jury, he questioned why he would be asking to put a bet on if he was going to kill himself.
Friends of Alford, who also starred in London’s Burning, suspect he took an overdose of pills.
His death is being investigated by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
A post-mortem is due to take place with further toxicology tests expected in an effort to establish his cause of death.
Alford first came to fame playing the part of rebel Robbie Wright in BBC’s Grange Hill when he was 13.
With his boyish good looks, Alford launched a career as a pop star and had three top 30 hits and performed on Top of the Pops.
But he was sacked from London’s Burning in 1999 after being exposed for supplying cocaine and cannabis following a newspaper expose.
