ACTOR IN DRUG 'STING' GETS NINE MONTHS

John Alford, the former London's Burning star, was jailed for nine months
yesterday. He had been taken in by a newspaper "sting" that exposed him as a
drug supplier.

Alford, 27, who defended himself in the trial earlier this month at
Snaresbrook Crown Court, was convicted of supplying cannabis and cocaine. He
blamed the News of the World for entrapping him into supplying the drugs to
an undercover reporter posing as an Arab prince.

In mitigation, David Etherington, QC, accused the newspaper of setting out
to snare someone who was "naive, over-anxious to please and easily dazzled".

During the trial Alford admitted he had been a cocaine user from the age of
13 to 23 and had spent up to UKP500 a week on his habit. The actor, who lost
his UKP50,000-a-year role in the television series after the newspaper
article, was "undoubtedly motivated by a desire to earn even more money",
said Judge Stephen Robbins.

He added: "There was a strong element of entrapment but you willingly went
along with the idea. You had plenty of opportunity when you left ... to
fetch these drugs to distance yourself from it."