Former UK Soldier Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Court

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British forces camp in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the deportation. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was released by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been facing a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to face charges.

The defendant served formerly as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night out, and her corpse was discovered 60 days later in the premises of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

No one had earlier been detained or charged in connection to her passing. His detention was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper contacted several active and retired troops in the regiment.

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