Ex UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was killed near a British army base in 2012.

Purkiss, 38 years old, 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 deportation. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of killing, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He served formerly as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her corpse was discovered 60 days later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had previously been taken into custody or charged in connection to her death. His detention came after a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

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