Family, friends and colleagues of this missing man from London are still desperate to hear whether anyone has seen him on the Isle of Wight in the last couple of weeks. Ed
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that much loved Crystal Palace Library campaigner Robert “Robbie” Gibson, has been positively identified as travelling to the Isle of Wight on the day he disappeared, Monday 13 June.
Robbie was seen 
catching the 6.45pm WightLink Portsmouth to Ryde catamaran, before boarding a train at Ryde Pier south towards Lake and Shanklin.
Vulnerable headspace
Robbie’s disappearance is considered extremely out of character and his family and friends are concerned that he was in a “vulnerable headspace” at the time of going missing.
Close family friend Joe Duggan, who is helping to co-ordinate the community efforts to find Robbie said,
“Robbie’s family, his friends, and the wider Crystal Palace community that value the great work Robbie has done as a library campaigner, would just love to know that he is safe and well. We are getting increasingly concerned.”
Wide-ranging campaign
Friends have since travelled down to the Isle of Wight to raise awareness within the local community and distribute fliers and posters. This follows a sustained and wide ranging campaign from the Crystal Palace community.
Robbie is well known for his work to save his local library from closure and was one of the people who occupied the threatened Carnegie Library during April this year.
Massive community response
There has been a massive community response in Crystal Palace with thousands of fliers being distributed at train stations by his friends and neighbours, and there has been 1000s of shares and retweets on Facebook and Twitter.
The twitter campaign at #FindRobbie has really taken fire with celebrities including Boy George, Sara Cox, Theo Paphitis, stars from Eastenders and TOWIE as well as Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain retweeting the appeal to highlight the disappearance to followers worldwide.
Joe has also spoken on Radio 4 about #FindRobbie from the Radio Solent Studio at Newport. A local church and pub have become hubs for the volunteer effort.
Joe Duggan added,
“We are also really moved by the great support we received and continue to receive from the Isle of Wight community. We ask them to keep putting up the fliers and sharing and tweeting flier online so we can find out if this father, husband and friend is safe and well.”
Possible sighting eliminated
Police on the Isle of Wight are also working closely with the Lambeth Missing Persons Unit, and searches have been made in co-ordination with local rescue services.
A possible sighting of Robert leaving on the Catamaran has been eliminated after police studied CCTV footage of the crossing.
Community champion
Robbie was also very active in local community garden activity, helping set-up the “Sensible Garden” in South Norwood in 2014, named after local punk star “Captain Sensible” who came along to open the garden. The Garden won a Croydon Champions Award in 2015.
The only other positive sighting of Robbie was at the Co-operative store on Central Hill, Gipsy Hill, South London just prior to going missing, which was captured on the stores CCTV camera, eight days ago.
Update 30th June
On Tuesday, 21 June, Met Police released CCTV images of Robbie’s arrival in the hope that someone may know where he is staying.
Officers have since recovered CCTV footage of Robert at the Co-Op on Landguard Road at 19:45hrs on Monday, 13 June where he purchased a number of items.
He is seen to walk out of the shop and cross the car park to the right before heading in the direction of Shanklin Town Centre. Robert is known to enjoy coastal walks and often stays on campsites.
Police and his family are growing increasingly concerned for his safety and wellbeing.
Robert is described as white, 6ft tall, of slim build with grey hair. He wears black rimmed Prada glasses.
He was seen wearing a green/khaki ‘Barbour-style’ jacket, brown trousers and white trainers. He was carrying a blue Co-Op bag for life.
Get in touch
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call police in Lambeth on 101 or the charity Missing People on 116000.
