Former British Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has been presented in court as deportation processes started in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was found dead near a British army base in 2012.

Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, appeared before the Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the deportation. Sources suggest that he was arrested on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was authorized by a Nairobi court in the month of September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been charged with a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a beautician who had a infant daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her corpse was located two months later in the area of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

No one had before been taken into custody or indicted in connection to her passing. Purkiss’s arrest came after a fresh police investigation, which was initiated after a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper reached out to several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the case.