Ex UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenyan Female Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings commenced in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a UK military installation in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the extradition. It is understood that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was issued by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would pursue his extradition to stand trial.

The defendant served formerly as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

The victim, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her corpse was located 60 days later in the premises of the hotel where she had last been seen.

No one had previously been detained or charged in relation to her passing. Purkiss’s arrest came after a fresh police investigation, which followed a report in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper contacted several active and retired troops in the regiment.

The investigation has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.