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

An individual has appeared in court as extradition hearings commenced in the investigation of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition. Sources suggest that he was arrested on Thursday evening.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in the month of September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to stand trial.

The defendant previously worked as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her corpse was found after two months in the premises of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had previously been detained or indicted in relation to her passing. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which came after a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been headed by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the case.