Ex British Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Court

A suspect has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was killed near a British forces camp in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester region, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was issued by a court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a single count, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to face charges.

The defendant was once employed as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

The victim, twenty-one, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her remains was located after two months in the area of the hotel where she had most recently observed.

No one had before been arrested or charged in relation to her death. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a report in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the publication reached out to several active and retired troops in the unit.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the legal case.