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

A man has appeared in court as extradition proceedings began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a British army base in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the deportation. Reports indicate that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a sole charge, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to stand trial.

He served formerly as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night out, and her remains was found two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had previously been detained or charged in connection to her demise. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The investigation has been headed by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.