Former UK Soldier Accused of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

An individual has been presented in court as deportation processes started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he intended to contest the extradition. It is understood that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for the defendant was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in the month of September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the accused had been charged with a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night out, and her corpse was discovered after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had before been arrested or accused in relation to her demise. The arrest of Purkiss followed a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a report in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication approached several active and retired troops in the regiment.

This inquiry has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the matter.