Former British Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Shows Up in Court

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

Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the defendant was released by a court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the individual had been charged with a one count, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to stand trial.

The defendant served formerly as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her body was found after two months in the premises of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had earlier been arrested or indicted in connection to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the publication approached several active and retired troops in the unit.

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