DEV'S RAT IT AGAIN

CORRIE star Jimmi Harkishin's love-life has become even more tangled than that of his bed-hopping Street character Dirty Dev.

Jimmi, who plays the soap's amorous shopkeeper, has already been caught out four times cheating on his long-term partner Susan Beaton. But now there is a FIFTH woman in the handsome love-rat's life - Granada TV producer Ruth Gray, 26.

He has spent nights at her luxury apartment in the City South complex in central Manchester, close to the Granada studios.

The pair have also been seen arriving at the studios in his red Jaguar and kissing fondly.

This week, Jimmi, 39, drove to her apartment to pick up Ruth - who works on Tonight With Trevor MacDonald - before spending an evening drinking at the city's Victoria and Albert Hotel.

"They were laughing and joking and looked to be very close," said a fellow drinker in the terrace bar at the V&A.

In the Street, Dev - who has already bedded Tracey Barlow and her mum Deirdre among other conquests - is fighting rival and fellow hunk Ciaran (played by Keith Duffy) for the hand of Sunita (Shobna Gulati).

But Jimmi's real love-life is just as complicated.

Travel agent Kim Lee, 20, revealed in the Sunday Mirror how she was seduced by him.

Before that, he was exposed for cheating with shop assistant Caroline Jones, 25. She told how she stripped to her red thigh-high boots for a sex session with him. But Jimmi denied it.

Long-suffering teacher Susan Beaton took him back after it was revealed he had a child with Asian actress Kim Vithana.

Then after his fling with Kim, Jimmi moved into pretty assistant TV producer Hayley Smith's three-bedroom Salford flat, where he still lives.

He explained to Susan that he was simply helping Hayley, 25, out by paying the rent after she had lost her job. And he told the Sunday Mirror that they were "just good friends". But neighbours said they had been seeing each other at the flat "for several months" before he moved in.

Last night Jimmi said: "I've nothing to say. I am not discussing any of my relationships.

"I am just a lowly, lowly actor. I do a job, I go to work, I come home and learn lines. That's it."

When the Sunday Mirror put it to Ruth Gray that she was in a "close and sexual relationship" with Jimmi, she replied: "OK, there's nothing I can do about it. I still have no comment to make."

-IF you have NOT slept with Jimmi please ring our Dirty Dev hotline on 0207 293 3601.

[email protected]

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