Ex British Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as extradition proceedings started in the investigation of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British forces camp in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from the Manchester area, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the deportation. Sources suggest that he was arrested on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was authorized by a Nairobi court in September. The prosecution informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been accused of a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.

Purkiss previously worked as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a young daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her corpse was located after two months in the premises of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Nobody had before been arrested or charged in connection to her death. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet contacted several active and retired troops in the regiment.

The investigation has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the case.