Ex British Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a British forces camp in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, was presented at Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the deportation. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that the individual had been accused of a one count, of killing, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to stand trial.

Purkiss previously worked as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

The victim, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her remains was found 60 days later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had before been arrested or indicted in connection to her demise. The arrest of Purkiss followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet approached several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The probe has been headed by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the case.