Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenya Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

An individual has been presented in court as deportation processes began in the investigation of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of Greater Manchester, was presented at Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and stated to the court he would challenge the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been facing a sole charge, of killing, and that the government of Kenya would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, 21, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her remains was found two months later in the area of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Nobody had earlier been taken into custody or accused in relation to her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

The investigation has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.