A self-styled motivational business mentor was caught out by an online paedophile hunter group.
Geoffrey Prince, 79, of Mount Grove, Birkenhead, whose motivational Facebook page refers to him as “Guru Geoffrey”, offered to help people "rekindle the passion for life" if they bought one of his books.
In Facebook posts he said "I don't know why but I'm always on fire to succeed" - but today he is beginning a prison sentence after asking a paedophile hunter posing as a teenage girl to send him explicit images and perform a sex act.
READ MORE: Paedophile asked 'girl' for explicit images and called her 'sexy'
A court heard he had been “ensnared” by a paedophile hunter posing as a 14-year-old girl, using doctored images of herself on a dating app called Twoo. The pair spoke for two months, and Prince requested explicit images from the ‘girl’ and asked her to perform a sex act.
In November, he pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and one count of attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity.
He was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Tuesday at Liverpool Crown Court.
The convicted sex offender has written and published five books on motivation and business success, the most recent of which was published in January 2022, around the same time he began talking to the ‘girl’.
On Amazon, one of his books is titled “Success: The Choice is Yours”, and its tagline is: “Your success is down to your choice”. He also had a website for his motivational business which was not accessible today.
According to the About the Author section of his Amazon page, he ran a boat building business in the 1970s, and was involved in chemical sales to a four-crown hotel. He also offered a Business Start-up course, one-to-one mentoring, and was involved in motivational networking groups.
According to his Linkedin, Prince has been a “Business Mentor” since April 2004, and is described as someone who “brings out that small spark inside you, turning it into a blazing inferno.”
He also offered hour-long sessions titled “What have you accomplished in your life”, both on Zoom and in-person.
In his last Facebook post he said: "To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes & forget about the failures & negatives in our lives. I know the price of success; is dedication, hard work & an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen."
In another he added: "A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at them!"
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