Former UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

A suspect has been presented in court as deportation processes commenced in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British army base in the year 2012.

Purkiss, 38, who is a native of Greater Manchester, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the suspect was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the accused had been facing a single count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to face charges.

He was once employed as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, disappeared after a night on the town, and her remains was located 60 days later in the area of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had earlier been taken into custody or charged in connection to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a new police inquiry, which followed a report in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

This inquiry has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the case.