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James Davenport, 42, has spoken openly about how he manipulated woman, sniffed aerosols and got onto the harder stuff.

The Salford lad, known by his mates as Shinny, told how he picked up woman wherever he could find them - and he didn’t mind having to pay for a bit of nooky either, as he tried to fulfil his insatiable appetite for sex.

A boxer in his earlier days, Davenport says he got at least 2,000 women between the sheets, kicking off his womanising at just 13-years-old.

He said: "Alcohol, drugs, sex - anything. The quick, instant gratification was what I wanted.

“From the age of about 12 or 13 when I went fully into sex, up until I was about 38, I calculated that I probably slept with about 2,000 women.

“I picked up prostitutes, women from clubs, anywhere. I could have between five and 10 women over the course of a weekend. But it wasn’t enough.

(Image: The Making of An Addict)

“I even started questioning my own sexuality at one point.”

The Salford lad continued: “I would manipulate older girls to perform sex acts on me.

“I was very mature at an early age, my thinking was like a teenager. I knew it was wrong, but it excited me. I couldn’t help myself.

“Addicts become experts at manipulating and we will do anything to get what we want. For me it was simple to manipulate a girl older than me and convince her it was OK to do what we were doing.

“The alcoholism started around the same age. I remember drinking alcohol at my grandparents. It was some form of lager in a tap barrel in their spare room. I loved the way it made me feel.”

Shinny says he can pin-point his addictive tendencies back to when he was just seven.

“I used to steal it and drink it out of the bottle,” remembered Shinny, who now hosts a recovery talk show in Youtube.

“With vinegar, I think I got a kick from it, a bit like with a chilli.

“I also remember drinking out of a dirty puddle, and have only recently found out, during my recovery, that it was also part of the addiction.

As I drank it I remember thinking - I have made my own decision to do that and no one knows what I’ve done.

“Along with that my behaviour was up the wall. I used to wet the bed and was scared of the dark when I was younger. I always felt like an outsider looking in. Through my addictions and behaviour I was trying to escape my own thinking.”

(Image: The Making of An Addict)

After leaving high-school, Shinny, who has also battled with an eating disorder, went out into the Salford streets to get involved in the drugs game.

“Sex, drugs, rock and roll, violence and criminal activity was my life,” he said.

“Alcoholism has nothing to do with alcohol as such, it’s the feeling that it gives you. Anything that excites me - I'm in.

“Later on I became involved in criminal activity. I wanted to be the most successful, hardest drug dealer. And the most handsome.

"I can go to bed thinking about myself, dream about myself and wake up thinking about myself. Addicts are very self-obsessed people,” he added.

Shinny thinks that his erratic lifestyle may have had something to do with his relationship with his alcoholic father who was absent for large periods of his teens.

Davenport, now a father-of-two, was close to taking his own life at one point as the booze and drugs took a firm hold.

(Image: The Making of An Addict)

But it was the thought of his two young children, eight and fifteen, that pulled Shinny through the darkest times.

He went on: “I planned how I was going to do it, and how. It’s so sad to think that it can get that dark. When my partner left and I could not be with my children anymore, that was what I needed to sort myself out.

“I went into detox in 2014. Since then I have had one relapse, but as of June 1, I will be two years clean.”

Now two years clean he has used his experience to help educate people about addiction through a documentary called 'The Making of an Addict'.

A 12-minute teaser of the biopic, directed by Chris Green, was screened Saturday morning at HOME and is available to view on Shinny's official Facebook page.

He now aims to make the full movie and use his experience to teach children in schools of the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

“I want this film to be the new Kes, I want it to be an education to children in schools,” he explained, talking of the 1969 film by Ken Loach.

(Image: The Making of An Addict)

“I have channeled my addictions into getting well and helping others, and want to show others that it can be done. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend Nicole I wouldn’t be where I am today. She’s a massive part of my life.

“This disease is always going to be there. You can either wallow in it or fight. My first thought in the morning is always negative, but I quickly change that into a positive and pray to a higher power greater than me to keep me clean and sober for one more day.

“It’s a 24 hour reprieve. I don’t think about tomorrow. If I have to do this for the rest of my life to be a decent father and member of the community, I will.”

If you need someone to talk to Samaritans can be confidentially reached on 116 123.