Ex British Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

A man has shown up before a judge as deportation processes began in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a British forces camp in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of Greater Manchester region, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A detention order for Purkiss was released by a Nairobi court in September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the individual had been charged with a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would pursue his extradition to face charges.

He was once employed as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her corpse was discovered two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Nobody had previously been detained or indicted in relation to her demise. Purkiss’s arrest came after a recent detective probe, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several current and former soldiers in the unit.

The investigation has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, retains jurisdiction in the matter.