Former UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenyan Female Shows Up in Court
An individual has been presented in court as deportation processes commenced in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was killed near a UK military installation in the year 2012.
Purkiss, 38, who is originally from the Manchester area, appeared before the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the deportation. It is understood that he was detained on Thursday evening.
A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was issued by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the accused had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.
The defendant previously worked as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.
Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a young daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her remains was discovered two months later in the area of the hotel where she had last been seen.
Nobody had previously been arrested or charged in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest came after a new police inquiry, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.
The investigation has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the matter.