Ex UK Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

A man has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings commenced in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was found dead near a British army base in the year 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition. It is understood that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a one count, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

He previously worked as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a infant daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her remains was located two months later in the premises of the hotel where she had last been seen.

Nobody had earlier been arrested or charged in connection to her death. His detention followed a fresh police investigation, which was initiated after a report in the year 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication approached several active and retired troops in the military group.

The investigation has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the case.