Ex UK Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenyan Female Appears in Court
A man has appeared in court as extradition hearings started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a UK military installation in the year 2012.
The accused Robert Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, appeared before the Westminster court on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.
A detention order for Purkiss was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been accused of a sole charge, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to answer to accusations.
The defendant served formerly as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.
The victim, 21, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her remains was found 60 days later in the premises of the lodging where she had last been seen.
Nobody had previously been taken into custody or charged in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.
The probe has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.
