Ex British Soldier Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

An individual has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British forces camp in 2012.

Purkiss, 38 years old, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, showed up in the Westminster court on the last Friday, and told the court he would challenge the deportation. It is understood that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was authorized by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the individual had been accused of a one count, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to stand trial.

The defendant was once employed as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her remains was found 60 days later in the grounds of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Nobody had earlier been detained or charged in connection to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a report in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

This inquiry has been headed by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the legal case.