Former British Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Female Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British army base in the year 2012.

Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from the Manchester area, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the extradition. Sources suggest that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the suspect was issued by a Nairobi court in the month of September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He previously worked as a army medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the northwestern England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her body was discovered two months later in the premises of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had before been detained or indicted in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a recent detective probe, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several current and former soldiers in the unit.

This inquiry has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the legal case.