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

A suspect has been presented in court as extradition proceedings began in the investigation of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of Greater Manchester, showed up in Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and stated to the court he would challenge the deportation. It is understood that he was arrested on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was authorized by a court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been accused of a sole charge, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would seek his extradition to stand trial.

The defendant served formerly as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night out, and her corpse was found after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

No one had before been arrested or charged in association with her demise. Purkiss’s arrest came after a new police inquiry, which came after a exposé in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet approached several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The investigation has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the matter.