Former UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Appears in Courtroom

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a British army base in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester, appeared before the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition request. Reports indicate that he was arrested on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for the defendant was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

The defendant previously worked as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her body was located after two months in the grounds of the hotel where she had last been seen.

No one had earlier been detained or indicted in association with her demise. His detention was the result of a recent detective probe, which followed a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper approached several active and retired troops in the unit.

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