Former British Soldier Accused of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

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

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from the Manchester area, was presented at Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the deportation. It is understood that he was arrested on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was released by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a sole charge, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her body was located two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had before been arrested or charged in association with her demise. Purkiss’s arrest followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

The probe has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the matter.