Former British Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Female Appears in Courtroom

A man has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was killed near a UK military installation in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at Westminster magistrates court on the last Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the accused had been accused of a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a beautician who had a young daughter, vanished after a night out, and her corpse was found after two months in the premises of the lodging where she had last been seen.

No one had earlier been detained or accused in relation to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication contacted several active and retired troops in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the matter.