Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Court

A man has appeared in court as deportation processes began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a British army base in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was issued by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The prosecution informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been accused of a sole charge, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to face charges.

He was once employed as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night out, and her remains was located 60 days later in the premises of the hotel where she had most recently observed.

Not a single person had previously been taken into custody or accused in connection to her death. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a exposé in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the publication approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

The probe has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the case.