Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Court

A suspect has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a British army base in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

A detention order for Purkiss was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been charged with a sole charge, of killing, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to face charges.

He was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, vanished after a night out, and her remains was discovered after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

No one had previously been detained or indicted in connection to her demise. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

The investigation has been headed by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the legal case.