Former British Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

Purkiss, 38, who is a native of Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the extradition. It is understood that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the suspect was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been accused of a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss was once employed as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her corpse was discovered two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had earlier been arrested or accused in relation to her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet contacted several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

This inquiry has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the legal case.