Former British Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenyan Female Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was found dead near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of Greater Manchester, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the extradition request. Reports indicate that he was arrested on Thursday evening.

A detention order for Purkiss was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a sole charge, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to stand trial.

He was once employed as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a night on the town, and her body was discovered two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

No one had previously been taken into custody or charged in association with her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a recent detective probe, which came after a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

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