Ex UK Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Shows Up in Court

A suspect has appeared in court as extradition proceedings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is originally from Greater Manchester, appeared before Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the extradition. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the defendant was authorized by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the individual had been accused of a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to stand trial.

He was once employed as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the northwestern England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a young daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her corpse was located after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had earlier been detained or indicted in association with her passing. His detention followed a new police inquiry, which followed a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet reached out to several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The probe has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the case.