Former UK Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenyan Female Shows Up in Court

A suspect has shown up before a judge as deportation processes started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the extradition. It is understood that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been facing a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to stand trial.

Purkiss previously worked as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her corpse was discovered 60 days later in the area of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Nobody had previously been arrested or charged in association with her demise. Purkiss’s arrest followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the publication contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been headed by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.