Former UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Courtroom

A suspect has appeared in court as extradition hearings started in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a one count, of killing, and that the government of Kenya would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

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.

The victim, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her corpse was discovered two months later in the premises of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had previously been arrested or accused in connection to her passing. His detention followed a recent detective probe, which followed a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

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