A HIV activist and former Mr Gay World runner-up from Dublin is asking online trolls to stop abusing him on social media because he happens to share the same name as slain gangland enforcer Robbie Lawlor.
The other Robbie Lawlor is a 28-year-old who became a household name last year when he appeared on The Late Late Show to tell Ryan Tubridy about the stigma around HIV in Ireland and his experience living with the disease.
When he was only 21 years old, Robbie was diagnosed despite admitting at the time “I didn’t even know HIV existed in Ireland".
Unfortunately, when typing the name Robbie Lawlor into Twitter, his is the first profile that appears and over the weekend he received large chunks of hate-tweets and messages that were clearly meant for the other Robbie, the 35-year-old gangland thug who was blasted dead outside a house in the Ardoyne area of the Northern city on Saturday.
Responding to one of the abusive tweets which read "served you right Robbie you were a hit man and a murderer. Butchered a 17-year-old kid in Drogheda", the Dublin activist replied, "I don't know who needs to hear this but I am not a murderer."
He added: "Around 10 people sent me messages about [the shooting] this morning. Not sure my murdering skills are up to scratch."
The brave Dubliner is the co-founder of Access to Medicines Ireland, “a group of people dedicated to making sure safe, affordable and effective medicines are available to everyone who needs them”.
He is also a HIV advocate for Act Up Dublin, “a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger & committed to direct action to end the HIV crisis.”
A far cry from his namesake, who before he was brutally gunned down at the weekend had amassed 124 convictions to his name.
The 35-year-old Donaghmede man was pronounced dead at the scene with three men and a teenage boy arrested following the bloodbath - one of the men has since been released.
Dublin Live understands that the notorious gangland enforcer was intent on "either killing someone or hammering someone for money" when he was attacked.
The notorious criminal was a suspect in a number of gangland killings - and was believed to be behind the Narcos style murder of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods.
The gruesome killing of the 17-year-old Drogheda boy, whose body was dismembered and dumped around north Dublin in January, shocked the nation and made headlines all around the world.
