Former British Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Female Appears in Court

An individual has shown up before a judge as deportation processes started in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from the Manchester area, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he intended to contest the extradition. Sources suggest that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the defendant was released by a court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the accused had been facing a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, vanished after a night out, and her body was found two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had previously been arrested or accused in relation to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a fresh police investigation, which followed a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper contacted several active and retired troops in the unit.

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