Former British Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

A man has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of Greater Manchester region, appeared before Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the accused had been charged with a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss was once employed as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her corpse was located 60 days later in the area of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

No one had previously been taken into custody or indicted in association with her passing. His detention followed a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a exposé in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the case.